Romania's National Day

Flag of the Romanian Socialist
Republic (1965-1989)

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

November 30, 2011

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to all Romanians as you celebrate your national day this December 1.

Ninety-three years ago the Romanian state was founded on the democratic principles of liberty and equality which are the shared values at the heart of our relationship. Today, we count on Romania as a strong ally as we work together to support the stability and prosperity of Afghanistan, the Euro-Atlantic integration of your Balkan neighbors, and global security through extensive law enforcement cooperation. In addition to those long-standing ties, the signing of this year's joint strategic partnership and missile defense agreements marks a new chapter in our enduring relationship, and we look forward to finding new ways to work together.

Flag of the anti-Ceasescu revolutionaries
during the Revolution of 1989.

As you celebrate this special day with family, friends and loved ones, know that the United States stands with you as a partner and friend. Congratulations and best wishes for a year of peace and prosperity.

Note: The Romanian people have come a long way and overcome much poverty since overthrowing the Marxist totalitarian dictatorship of Nikolai Ceausescu.

Both images used are in the public domain and were obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

FBI San Francisco and Boston Divisions Ask for the Public’s Assistance in Finding Wanted Fugitive Daniel Andreas San Diego

BOSTON—At the request of the San Francisco Division of the FBI, the Boston Division is asking the public’s assistance in locating Daniel Andreas San Diego, a fugitive on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” list who may be hiding in western Massachusetts. The FBI received a tip from America’s Most Wanted that San Diego may be in the Northampton, Massachusetts area. Based upon this information, the FBI is seeking the public’s help in tracking down this fugitive. The FBI is offering a reward for up to $250,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of San Diego. The reward can be paid confidentially.

San Diego, who was the first domestic terrorism suspect added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list on April 21, 2009, is wanted for his alleged involvement in two bombings in the San Francisco, California area.

On August 28, 2003, two bombs exploded approximately one hour apart on the campus of a biotechnology corporation in Emeryville, Calif. Then, on September 26, 2003, one bomb strapped with nails exploded at a nutritional products corporation in Pleasanton, Calif.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for San Diego in October 2003. However, he disappeared before he could be taken into custody.

San Diego, who was a California resident, is described as a white male with a light complexion, 6’0” tall, 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He has several tattoos, to include: a round image of burning hillsides in the center of his chest with the words “It only takes a spark” printed in a semicircle below; burning and collapsing buildings on the sides of his abdomen and back; and a single leafless tree rising from a road in the center of his lower back. These tattoos may have been significantly altered or covered with new tattoos. Because of the unique nature of these tattoos, San Diego may be reluctant to remove his shirt, even in situations where it is the norm.

At the time of his disappearance, San Diego ate neither meat nor any food containing animal products. If he has maintained this discipline, people around him may notice that he avoids consuming or wearing anything made with animal products.  He is known to be affiliated with the group Revolutionary Cells - Animal Liberation Brigade.

Several years of living as a wanted fugitive may have forced San Diego to engage in secretive behavior, and this deception may spill over into other areas of his life: he may be vague or contradictory about his past history, routinely use prepaid cell phones or calling cards, or often change his e-mail address.

Because of his training in computer networking, San Diego may be known by those around him as someone to come to for computer-related assistance. He also is known to cook and bake vegan foods. He may be using these skills as a form of income.

Due to the sensitivity of improvised explosives, individuals engaged in the unlawful manufacture and storage of these materials pose a particular risk to themselves and the public. Accidental detonations with disastrous consequences are not uncommon among bomb makers.

San Diego should be considered armed and dangerous.

Anybody with information as to the whereabouts of San Diego is urged to call the FBI in Boston at 617-742-5533 or in San Francisco at 415-553-7400. All calls are confidential.

The Shining Path: A Brief History, Part 4

Continued from Part 3

 

The Shining Path brutally killed its victims and rejected the idea of human rights. A Shining Path document stated:

 

2009 Shining Path anti-American
propaganda poster featuring the faces
of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Guzman

“We start by not ascribing to either Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Costa Rica [Convention on Human Rights], but we have used their legal devices to unmask and denounce the old Peruvian state. . . . For us, human rights are contradictory to the rights of the people, because we base rights in man as a social product, not man as an abstract with innate rights. "Human rights" do not exist except for the bourgeois man, a position that was at the forefront of feudalism, like liberty, equality, and fraternity were advanced for the bourgeoisie of the past. But today, since the appearance of the proletariat as an organized class in the Communist Party, with the experience of triumphant revolutions, with the construction of socialism, new democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it has been proven that human rights serve the oppressor class and the exploiters who run the imperialist and landowner-bureaucratic states. Bourgeois states in general. . . . Our position is very clear. We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Yankee imperialists.”

--The Communist Party of Peru, Sobre las Dos Colinas

 

Level of support

While the Shining Path quickly seized control of large areas of Peru, it soon faced serious problems. The Shining Path's Maoism never had the support of the majority of the Peruvian people; according to opinion polls, 15% of the population considered subversion to be justifiable in June 1988 while 17% considered it justifiable in 1991. In June 1991, "the total sample disapproved of the Shining Path by an 83 to 7 percent margin, with 10 percent not answering the question. Among the poorest, however, only 58% stated disapproval of the Shining Path; 11 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the Shining Path, and some 31 percent would not answer the question." A September 1991 poll found that 21 percent of those polled in Lima believed that the Shining Path did not kill and torture innocent people. The same poll found that 13% believed that society would be more just if the Shining Path won the war and 22% believed society would be equally just under the Shining Path as it was under the government.

 

Many peasants were unhappy with the Shining Path's rule for a variety of reasons, such as its disrespect for indigenous culture and institutions, and the brutality of its "popular trials" that sometimes included "slitting throats, strangulation, stoning, and burning." While punishing and killing cattle thieves was popular in some parts of Peru, the Shining Path also killed peasants and popular leaders for minor offenses. Peasants were offended by the rebels' injunction against burying the bodies of Shining Path victims.

 

The Shining Path became disliked for its policy of closing small and rural markets in order to end small-scale capitalism and to starve Lima. As a Maoist organization, it strongly opposed all forms of capitalism. It followed Mao's dictum that guerrilla warfare should start in the countryside and gradually choke off the cities. As the peasants' livelihoods depended on trade in the markets, they rejected such closures. In several areas of Peru, the Shining Path launched unpopular restrictive campaigns, such as a prohibition on parties and the consumption of alcohol.

 

Government response and abuses

In 1991, President Alberto Fujimori issued a law that gave the rondas a legal status, and from that time they were officially called Comités de auto defensa ("Committees of Self Defence"). They were officially armed, usually with 12-gauge shotguns, and trained by the Peruvian Army. According to the government, there were approximately 7,226 comités de auto defensa as of 2005; almost 4,000 are located in the central region of Peru, the stronghold of the Shining Path.

 

The Peruvian government also clamped down on the Shining Path in other ways. Military personnel were dispatched to areas dominated by the Shining Path, especially Ayacucho, to fight the rebels. Ayacucho itself was declared an emergency zone, and constitutional rights were suspended in the area.

 

Civilian victims of the Shining Path

Initial government efforts to fight the Shining Path were not very effective or promising. Military units engaged in many human rights violations, which caused the Shining Path to appear in the eyes of many as the lesser of two evils. They used excessive force and killed many innocent civilians. Government forces destroyed villages and killed campesinos suspected of supporting the Shining Path. They eventually lessened the pace at which the armed forces committed atrocities such as massacres. Additionally, the state began the widespread use of intelligence agencies in its fight against the Shining Path. However, atrocities were committed by the National Intelligence Service and the Army Intelligence Service, notably the La Cantuta massacre and the Barrios Altos massacre, both of which were committed by Grupo Colina.

 

After the collapse of the Fujimori government, interim President Valentín Paniagua, established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the conflict. The Commission found in its 2003 Final Report that 69,280 people died or disappeared between 1980 and 2000 as a result of the armed conflict. About 54% of the deaths and disappearances reported to the Commission were caused by the Shining Path. A statistical analysis of the available data led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to estimate that the Shining Path was responsible for the death or disappearance of 31,331 people, 46% of the total deaths and disappearances. According to a summary of the report by Human Rights Watch, "Shining Path… killed about half the victims, and roughly one-third died at the hands of government security forces… The commission attributed some of the other slayings to a smaller guerrilla group and local militias. The rest remain unattributed." The MRTA was held responsible for 1.5% of the deaths.

 

Continued in Part 5: The Shining Path’s collapse and resurgence

Information courtesy of Wikipedia. Propaganda poster was obtained via TrevorLoudon.com and victims photograph was obtained via Neveryetmelted.com .

DIA Observance Honors Vietnam Veterans

By Christine Wolfe

DIA Public Affairs

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2011 – The Defense Intelligence Agency last week marked its 50th birthday – and the 50th anniversary of the beginning of U.S. military action in Vietnam – with a tribute to U.S. Sen. John McCain and all Vietnam War veterans.

"Your service and sacrifices for our nation during Vietnam and beyond are inspirational," said DIA Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess during the Nov. 4 observance after asking Vietnam War veterans to stand and be recognized. The event was aired live as a video teleconference viewed by current and former DIA employees around the world. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. and former DIA directors Patrick Hughes and James Williams also attended the observance in DIA’s Tighe Auditorium on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

Burgess presented McCain with the DIA Director’s Award and the DIA Operational Intelligence report from Oct. 27, 1967, which cited his Navy A-4E aircraft as downed by surface-to-air missiles southwest of Hanoi.

Burgess also brought attention to the final days of the evacuation of Saigon, in April 4, 1975, when a C-5 transport plane carrying the first flight of Vietnamese orphans out of the country during “Operation Babylift” crashed in a rice paddy.

"This agency saw selfless sacrifice,” he said, noting that the casualties included five DIA employees charged with caring for the children on that flight.  The crash was the single largest loss of agency personnel until 9/11.

McCain addressed the overflow crowd and thanked the agency and its veterans for the role they played in the fight and close of the Vietnam War.

McCain thanked Burgess for the job he is doing leading DIA and the agency's workforce worldwide. "I only wish that more of Americans could see for themselves the full extent of the remarkable job that that you do every single day for them," he said.

McCain recalled that it was just over 50 years ago that the ink was barely dry on then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's order to establish DIA before the organization found itself on the front lines in Vietnam. Later, as President John F. Kennedy began the gradual escalation of Americans involved in that war, DIA set the standard of service to take it through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Six Day War, Operation Desert Storm, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This is the same standard of service that all of you continue to live up to today,” McCain said. "This is a special year for DIA as you mark your 50th anniversary. Of all the agencies of our government, DIA can truly say that it was born fighting."

McCain told those in the audience that regardless of the uniform they wear or the work accomplished as a DIA employee, their service is always worth it.

“There's no higher honor than to serve a just cause greater than your own self interests,” he said to Vietnam veterans. “And for those of you who walked away from a confusing, painful and emotional experience of your time in Vietnam, you nevertheless chose to remain faithful to the cause of our nation and all who serve it. I commend you."

The Shining Path: A Brief History, Part 3

Continued from Part 2



Flag of the Communist Party of Peru
(The Shining Path)

In response [to the execution of Curitomay by peasant militias in a defensive campaign], in April the Shining Path entered the province of Huanca Sancos and the towns of Yanaccollpa, Ataccara, Llacchua, Muylacruz and Lucanamarca, where they killed 69 people, in what became known as the Lucanamarca massacre. This was the first time the Shining Path massacred peasants. Similar events followed, such as the ones in Hauyllo, Tambo District. The guerrillas killed 47 peasants, including 14 children aged four to fifteen. Additional massacres by the Shining Path occurred, such as the one in Marcas on August 29, 1985. In addition to occasional massacres, the Shining Path established labor camps to punish those who betrayed the "forces of the people." Those imprisoned were forced to work the lands and the coca fields. Hunger and deprivation were commonplace, and attempting escape was punishable by immediate execution.

 

The Shining Path's attacks were not limited to the countryside. It mounted attacks against the infrastructure in Lima, killing civilians in the process. In 1983, it sabotaged several electrical transmission towers, causing a citywide blackout, and set fire and destroyed the Bayer industrial plant. That same year, it set off a powerful bomb in the offices of the governing party, Popular Action. Escalating its activities in Lima, in June 1985 it blew up electricity transmission towers in Lima, producing a blackout, and detonated car bombs near the government palace and the justice palace. It was believed to be responsible for bombing a shopping mall. At the time, President Fernando Belaúnde Terry was receiving the Argentine president Raúl Alfonsín. In one of its last attacks in Lima, on July 16, 1992, the group detonated a powerful bomb on Tarata Street in the Miraflores District, full of civilian people, adults and children, killing 25 people and injuring an additional 155.

 

During this period, the Shining Path assassinated specific individuals, notably leaders of other leftist groups, local political parties, labor unions, and peasant organizations, some of whom were anti-Shining Path Marxists. On April 24, 1985, in the midst of presidential elections, it tried to assassinate Domingo García Rada, the president of the Peruvian National Electoral Council, severely injuring him and mortally wounding his driver. In 1988, Constantin Gregory, an American citizen working for the United States Agency for International Development, was assassinated. Two French aid workers were killed on December 4 that same year. In August 1991, the group killed one Italian and two Polish priests in Ancash Region. The following February, it assassinated María Elena Moyano, a well-known community organizer in Villa El Salvador, a vast shantytown in Lima.

Flag of the MRTA, another Peruvian
Marxist guerrilla army and enemy of
the Shining Path

By 1991, the Shining Path had control of much of the countryside of the center and south of Peru and had a large presence in the outskirts of Lima. As the organization grew in power, a cult of personality grew around Guzmán. The official ideology of the Shining Path ceased to be 'Marxism–Leninism-Mao Tse-tung thought', and was instead referred to as 'Marxism–Leninism–Maoism-Gonzalo thought'. The Shining Path fought against Peru's other major Marxist guerrilla group, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and campesino (peasant) self-defense groups organized by the Peruvian armed forces.

 

Although the reliability of reports regarding the Shining Paths alleged atrocities remain a matter of controversy, the organization's use of violence is well documented. Lisa North, an expert on Peru at York University, noted that "the assassinations they carried out were absolutely ruthless . . . It was so extremist – absolutely, totally doctrinaire and absolutely, totally ruthless in pursuit of its aims."

 

The Shining Path brutally killed its victims and rejected the idea of human rights.

 

Continued in Part 4: The flat denial of human rights and loss of popularity

Both images property of "Huhsunqu" and used via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Soldiers Missing from Vietnam War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of three servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

 

Army Capt. Arnold E. Holm Jr. of Waterford, Conn.; Spc. Robin R. Yeakley of South Bend, Ind.; and Pfc. Wayne Bibbs of Chicago, will be buried as a group, in a single casket representing the entire crew, on Nov. 9, in Arlington National Cemetery.  On June 11, 1972, Holm was the pilot of an OH-6A Cayuse helicopter flying a reconnaissance mission in Thua Thien-Hue Province, South Vietnam.  Also on board were his observer, Yeakley, and his door gunner, Bibbs.  The aircraft made a second pass over a ridge, where enemy bunkers had been sighted, exploded and crashed, exploding again upon impact.  Crews of other U.S. aircraft, involved in the mission, reported receiving enemy ground fire as they overflew the crash site looking for survivors.

 

Between 1993 and 2008, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), interviewed witnesses, investigated, surveyed and excavated possible crash sites several times.  They recovered human remains, OH-6A helicopter wreckage and crew-related equipment—including two identification tags bearing Yeakley’s name.

 

Scientists from the JPAC used forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence to identify the crew.

 

Today more than 1,600 American remain un-accounted for from the Vietnam War.  More than 900 servicemen have been accounted for from that conflict, and returned to their families for burial with military honors since 1973.  The U.S. government continues to work closely with the governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to recover all Americans lost in the Vietnam War.

 

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1169.

U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue

Office of the Spokesperson (State Department)

Washington, DC

 

The 16th round of the U.S. – Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue will take place in Washington, D.C. November 9 - 10.

 

The Human Rights Dialogue, based on the principles of equality and mutual respect, brings together government experts led by Assistant Secretary Michael Posner for the United States and Director General Hoang Chi Trung for Vietnam. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will open the session at the State Department. These meetings will offer an opportunity to pursue in-depth and substantive discussions that can produce concrete results aimed at narrowing the differences that remain between the United States and Vietnam in the area of human rights.