A Most Dangerous Place To Visit.

MOST DANGEROUS CITIES FOR AMERICANS TO VISIT

The US State Department has issued travel warnings for Tijuana, Mexico, the most dangerous city for Americans to visit close to home. Innocent bystanders are being killed.
Newspaper reporters have disappeared. Middle-class business men and their families are being kidnapped. Innocent tourists are being shaken down for bribes by local police. The U.S. State Department issues regular travel warnings, which are recommendations to avoid certain cities or countries.

Faced with the assassinations of top police officials, beheadings of suspected narco-trafficers, body parts being thrown on the beach at Rosaritos, Baja Calafornia, rolling gun battles on public streets, and a deadly shootout in a hospital in Tijuana in April 2007, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has dispatched over 30,000 federal troops to combat the violence. In Tijuana Federal Troops went from one precinct to another and removed the guns from the local police, because many were suspected of carrying out executions for the drug cartels. It appears that the violence is getting worse. The newly appointed director of the anti-drug intelligence force was shot dead in Mexico City. In the State of Sonora across the Arizona border, a gun battle left 22 people dead and many more wounded.

More than 1,000 people have been killed already in 2007 in drug-related violence, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal. In 2006 more than 2000 people were killed in drug-related violence. More than 200 police officers have been killed. It is not clear whether the police were killed because of their involvement in fighting the drug trade or because they were a part of it says Jose Arturo Yanez of Mexico City’s Professional Police Training Institute. Mexico has become the second deadliest country for journalists behind Iraq. A survey in March showed that 85 percent of the people believe that President Calderon’s action will only lead to more violence.

A video last month on the website YouTube showed a man being beheaded next to the message “Do something for your country, kill a Zeta”. That was a reference to the hit men for the Gulf cartel that is believed to be warring against the Sinaloa cartel for the lucrative drug routes into the US.

Anyone visiting Mexico for more than a quick, one time, sight-seeing visit needs protection says risk consultants such as New York-based Kroll Inc. One of the first things to keep in mind, says Kroll's Senior Vice President Kelly McCann, is that the U.S. government is not going to rescue a civilian in the event of a kidnapping or hijacking overseas. "That is a huge misconception," says McCann. "Overseas, there is no responsibility by the U.S. government or its consulates to save you." "The guiding rule is to ask yourself if you are prepared and informed," says McCann. "You can travel safely in Mexico, but you have to do it right, such as avoiding known drug trafficking areas or red light districts”.



Fear of being kidnapped is prompting some of Tijuana's middle-and upper-class families to move across the border to San Diego County neighborhoods where they feel safer.
A Tijuana businessman said his family paid several hundred thousand dollars for his release after he was kidnapped this year. The family never reported the incident to police, he said. Afterward, he and his family decided to move into San Diego and San Diego county.

Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Tijuana-based Binational Center of Human Rights, said more kidnappings have occurred over the past few years, mainly because drug trafficking groups are finding kidnapping to be a relatively easy way to earn quick cash.
"It's a way to finance their activities," Alfaro said.
In a recent interview with Tijuana's Frontera newspaper, Jaime Valdovino Machado, president of the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce, said the city's business people "don't feel secure" because of crime and kidnapping risks. "It's a binational culture, and the question of living in Tijuana or not has been around for many years," said Daniel Romero Mejía, president of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial de Tijuana, an umbrella group of business organizations.
Typically, families that make the move have dual citizenship or U.S. residency status through family or marriage.
Nine kidnapping cases were reported to Mexican state authorities in 2005 in Baja California, according to Raúl Gutierrez, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
But that number is believed to be low because many cases are not reported to police. Family members often are afraid that it would anger the kidnappers or that local police are in collusion with the kidnappers.
"It's common that one learns when talking with friends of the middle or upper classes that this or that person has been kidnapped, and that's how you usually find out because they aren't usually made public," Clark said. "The statistics don't reflect the reality."
In one of case, he said, the family paid $150,000. In the other case, he said, the family paid $1 million – and then moved north of the border. That person still maintains his business in Tijuana, Clark said.
Most families don't want to talk about the experience. The kidnappers' method typically is to grab people at gunpoint as they are on the way home or headed to work. Most of the victims are men.
The Tijuana businessman who contacted the Union-Tribune shared details of his kidnapping but asked that they not be published out of concern for his safety.
Abraham Cecena, an agent with Prudential California Realty's Chula Vista office, said he is seeing more people from Tijuana moving to places such as Eastlake and Rancho del Rey.
"It's something that is becoming of greater concern to people down there, especially affluent families," he said. "The crime over there is just getting out of hand, from what they are telling me, and they don't feel safe."
The communities that people are moving to are the same places where some members of Mexican drug cartels – who also commit kidnappings and abductions – live for similar security reasons.
In 2004 a man charged with participating in kidnappings for the Arellano Félix drug cartel was linked to a home in Otay Lakes. Others with ties to the cartel, such as money laundering suspect Ivonne Soto Vega, have been found to be living in upscale communities such as Bonita.
U.S. law enforcement officials say they also have noticed that kidnappings have prompted people to move north.
Kroll Inc., an international risk consultant, estimates that 3,000 kidnappings occur in Mexico each year. In Latin America, only Colombia surpasses Mexico, according to the firm.
Those who don't move are taking greater precautions, said Ron Kimball, president of a San Antonio-based company that bullet-proofed 50 cars for Mexican residents last year.
The company, Texas Armoring Corp., equipped six of those for Tijuana families, Kimball said.
"In almost every case, they have told me that they had a family member who has been kidnapped and rescued by ransom," he said. "Normally, it's people involved in major industries like banking or ranching."
Armoring a sport utility vehicle can be done in 90 days and costs about $70,000, Kimball said. The idea is to give the driver enough time to survive an ambush and drive out of danger, he said.
Victor de la Garza, an assistant state attorney who oversees Baja California's organized-crime investigations – including kidnapping cases – didn't return phone calls. If convicted in Baja California, a kidnapper faces 20 to 40 years in prison.
Kidnappings of business people or other residents are typically committed by drug trafficking groups or by rings that specialize in kidnappings.
Those are different from the abductions that drug trafficking groups carry out against rivals, informants or people who owe them money. In those cases a ransom may be collected, but the person is often killed.
Mexican federal authorities often intervene in cases that have a strong drug link. But sometimes residents turn to them to investigate other kinds of kidnappings because they see federal agencies as more trustworthy.
An official with the Mexican attorney general's office in Tijuana said federal agents are investigating three kidnapping cases not connected with drug trafficking groups. The official declined to be named because of the agency's policy against talking with the media.
The rings evade authorities by negotiating on phone lines routed through other cities or countries to make the calls harder to trace. Kidnappers often leave the community once their job is done.
While most kidnappings last a week to a month – enough time for the family to negotiate and sell off assets to pay the ransom – quicker variations have emerged.
"Express kidnappings" take place when a person is targeted for a smaller amount of money – such as $5,000 to $30,000 – and is released within a few days after the family provides the cash.
Other groups have used extortion to commit "virtual kidnappings" in which a caller demands money from people so that they won't be kidnapped. In 2003, 10 members of Tijuana's business community reported such threats, and some ended up placing as much as $40,000 in designated bank accounts.
Romero said ensuring the safety of the city's business class is important for keeping and attracting investment. He said Tijuana's business leaders have been meeting with police.
"We need a greater police presence in the area to prevent these kinds of activities," Romero said.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TARGETS OF NEW INDIAN LAWS

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TARGETS OF NEW INDIAN LAWS

A troubling indication of a rising tide of intolerance towards Christians in India is a new law enacted in the state of Himachal Pradesh in February of 2007. The new law ostensibly bans all forced religious conversions to Christianity. It is most shocking because the state has so few Christians. Only about one-tenth of one percent of the 6 million inhabitants are Christians. Nationally 82 percent of the inhabitants are Hindus; 13 percent are Muslim. Only about 3 percent of the nation of India is Christian.

Himachal Pradesh has less than 8 thousand Christian, but it is the fifth state to pass such a law. Ironically the new law is entitled “The Freedom of Religion Law”. When Sonia Gandhi, the Congressional leader, stood up and spoke out against the anticonversion laws, she was condemned as Christian, and a foreigner, and someone who should not be running a Hindu country.

Christian missionaries have been reviled as “alleluia wallahs” by Hindu nationalists. They fear that the Christian missionaries are threatening India’s Hindu identity. These concerns have been used to justify a number of violent attacks against missionaries.
The new law requires anyone wishing to change religions to notify the District Magistrate not later than 30 days prior to converting. Failure to do so can result in a fine or imprisonment or both. Confinement for as long as two years is authorized.

VIOLATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

The multiplication of these anticonversion laws is causing concern around the world. The US State Department report on human rights practices in March expressed concern over the attempts by sate and local governments to limit religious freedom On May 2nd a pastor in Jaipur, Rajasthan was brutally beaten for converting a Hindu to Christianity. On May 9 the evening TV news broadcast showed a clip of two missionaries being paraded through the streets of Kolhapur in Maharashtra.

The Freedom of Religion Law makes it a crime for anyone to convert another person by force or “inducement” or other fraudulent means. “Inducement” is defined as the offer of any gift or gratification, either in cash or in kind or grant of any benefit either pecuniary or otherwise. Opponents of the law point out that the law is overly broad and can even prohibit the giving of food at a banquet or reception following religious services.

Despite the obvious suppression of religious freedom the new law will have, one cannot overlook the political implications. Political expediency often fills the void left by weak reasoning or lack of evidence. Hindu nationalists are teaching that India is a Hindu nation and that Christians and Muslims are outsiders. This has proved to be a powerful vote-getting platform.

Illegal to Convert to Christianity, says Muslim High Court.

ILLEGAL TO CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY.
The High Secular Court of Malaysia ruled that a female convert to Christianity from Islam can not be recognized as a Christian. Lina Joy had converted to Christianity and sought to have the word “Islam” removed from her national identity card. She argued that since her conversion to Christianity she was no longer bound by the Islamic sharia law. Her local Imam refused to allow the change. Lina appealed to the highest secular court in Malaysia. On Wednesday 23 May hundreds of Muslims waited outside the High Court to hear the ruling in the well publicized appeal. Many weeped as the court deliberated inside. Many Muslims were praying for a denial of the appeal. There was jubilation and near pandemonium when the High Court rejected the appeal of the Christian convert. The Court ruled that ruled that only the Muslim religious court could decide the issue according to Islamic sharia law.

Let Justice Be Done, Though The Heavens Fall.

Another Trial, Another Test, for Southern Justice
It's time for another high-profile case from the Civil Rights Movement. It's time for another old man to face a jury and his conscience. It's time for another test of the distance we've come from a time when the law protected whites at the expense of blacks. It's time for another Southern trial of a civil-rights era crime. And there is little reason to think or believe that this trial will end much differently from some of the other, similar trials we've seen over the past few years.

Jury selection begins today in Jackson, Mississippi for a man named James Ford Seale. He is charged with conspiracy and kidnapping relating to the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, who were brutally killed in May of that fateful year (the bodies of Moore and Dee were discovered while the police were searching for the bodies of the now-famous three civil rights workers, Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman). Seale was initially charged in 1964 but local authorities quickly dropped the case. The feds revived it a few years ago and here we are today, on the cusp of another round of ugly nostalgia.
James Ford Seale, a 71-year-old reputed Ku Klux Klansman from the town of Roxie, was charged with kidnapping hitchhikers Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19. For years, Seale’s family had told reporters that he had died. But in 2005, Thomas Moore and a Canadian documentary filmmaker, David Ridgen, found Seale, old and sick, living just a few miles down the road from where the kidnappings took place.

A second man long suspected in the attack, church deacon and reputed KKK member Charles Marcus Edwards, now 72, was not charged. There was no immediate explanation from federal prosecutors.

From Seale's defense attorneys we are hearing what we always hear from defense attorneys in these cases-- that it's all about politics and dredging up the past, and that the client, an old man, ought to simply be left alone. These arguments make for good copy but are rarely effective. They didn't work when Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted for his role in a church bombing, and they didn't work when Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of being involved in the "Mississippi Burning" crimes.




And there is no reason to think that they will work for Seale. Modern Southern juries already have demonstrated that the passage of decades is not a deal-breaker when it comes to rendering justice.

Nor does it help Seale that the feds have on their side as a witness in the case a fellow named Charles Marcus Edwards, who initially was charged with Seale back in 1964. If jurors believe Edwards, Seale is pretty much finished. And if Seale's lawyers go after Edwards as a liar, etc., then surely they will be signaling jurors that their client, Seale, is no day at the beach either. You know that the defense is in trouble when the lawyers start barking about the jury questionnaire and, indeed, that's been one of the more notable pretrial disputes.

Former Gov. William Winter, who was co-chairman of President Clinton’s racial reconciliation initiative, said the latest arrest — though done by federal rather than state authorities — shows that Mississippi “now is obviously seeking to make up for lost time in bringing people to justice.”


I cannot say that I enjoy following these trials-- I think they cause a lot of people a lot of pain. But they also serve an important purpose and send an important message about the rule of law and the strength of justice in this country. That message is simple: Justice delayed need not be justice denied.





Waiting. Hoping. Believing.

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.

EMMITT TILL remembered, but not avenged! ( 28 Feb 2007)
A Mississippi grand Jury refused to bring an indict against Carolyn Bryant Donham in the murder of Emmett Till. This is 52 years after the 14 year old Black Chicago native was lynched for whistling at Carolyn Bryant, the white shopkeeper Till is alleged to have flirted with.
Carolyn B. Donham, 73, was suspected of inciting pointing Till out to her husband, Ray Bryant. He andd his brother, J. W. Milam, were charged with the killing, but they were acquitted by an all-white jury in 1955. One year later they bragged about having killed Till in a magazine interview. The slaying of 14 year old Till occurred 1 year after the Supreme court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and just months before 43 year old Rosa Parks decided that she could not take it any longer. She refused to surrender her bus seat to a white man, and sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The fate of Emmitt Till became a legend. James Baldwin immortalized it in his play "Blues for Mister Charlie". Bob Dylan wrote songs about him. Toni Morrison wrote plays.
This may have been the last attempt to get justice for a Civil Rights era murder. In 1994 Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers. In 2002, Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were convicted in Alabama in the 1963 murder of 4 little Black girls in Sunday School at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham by a bomb. In 2005 Edgar RAy Killen was convicted of the 1964 slaughter of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, the Three Civil Rights Voter Registration Workers.
Thank God that Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales is on the cases. His message to the white racists and murderers who committed these crimes, and who have lived with their guilty consciouses all these years; "We are still on your trail".

Crowd "Booed" Miss USA in Mexico City at Miss Universe Pageant

It was painful to watch as the crowd in Mexico City booed Miss USA, Rachel Smith, at the Miss Universe Pageant on 28 May 2007. The Pageant sponsor, Donald Trump, seemed equally surprised. I wonder how soon, if ever, he will be back.
Miss USA, Rachel Smith, was also jeered by the Mexican audience during the interview phase. She was the contest's fourth runner-up. Rachel soldiered through her answer, describing an educational trip to South Africa. None of Miss USA's fellow Americans participating in the interview segment -- neither Minnillo, nor macho co-host Mario Lopez, nor the dashing Romo -- came to Smith's defense. Instead, Minnillo pleaded briefly with the unruly mob: "Okay, una momento, por favor." Lopez stood mute with a dumb grin on his dimpled face. Catcalls and whistles nearly drowned out Smith's reply until she wrapped up with "Buenos noches, Mexico."

In fact, Smith was subjected to anti-American hatred throughout the week-long event. During the contestants' national costume fashion show, Smith smiled bravely as a rowdy outdoor crowd hissed and booed at her. According to pageant observers, no other contestants received such treatment.



HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON?

Also, the last time the pageant was held in Mexico, Miss USA was abused in similar fashion. 1993 Miss USA Kenya Moore was infamously heckled when chosen for the semi-finals that year. How quickly we forget.


THE U.S. VS MEXICO: On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession."

In Guadalajara in 2004 during an Olympics qualification soccer match between the U.S. and Mexico? The stadium erupted in boos during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Fans yelled "Osama! Osama!" as the U.S. was eliminated by Mexico.
The following year, in March 2005, Mexican soccer fans again cheered the al Qaeda mastermind's name at a World Cup qualifier. ESPN reported the audience again booed and whistled during the U.S. national anthem, and plastic bags filled with urine were reportedly tossed on American players.
One Mexican fan told the Christian Science Monitor: "'Every schoolboy knows about 1848. . . . When they robbed our territory,' referring to when Texas, California and New Mexico were annexed to the U.S. as part of a peace treaty ending the war between the two countries, 'that was the beginning.'"
This bitterness is long-standing, deep-seated and stoked by top Mexican government officials and elites. But pointing this reality out in the context of our crucial national debate over sovereignty, immigration, assimilation, border security and the rule of law will get you labeled a bigot.




AND WHAT DO MEXICAN-AMERICAN POLITICIANS HAVE TO SAY?


HISPANIC LEADERS SPEAK OUT!

"They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over . . . We are here to stay." Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council.




"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico:




"We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . .. I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it." Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas


"Remember 187--proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens--was the last gasp of white America in California." Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party,


"We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country . . . I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, "I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back." Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor,


"California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave." Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton


"We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General ,


"We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos . . . " Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says speaking English in the United States is “common sense" and Congress should worry about "real” problems, not insignificant things like making English the official language of the United States. This is the same man, you may recall, who responded to the President's State of the Union Address, on behalf of the Democratic Party, in Spanish.

Let us not bring up the subject of integrity and our top law enforcement officers. How can you tell if a lawyer is lying? His lips move. Rocky Delgadillo, the City Attorney who ran for Attorney General has told people over the years that, in the words of the L.A. Times, "he made it out of his Eastside neighborhood by winning a football scholarship to Harvard University, where he was an Academic All-American before going on to become a professional football player." Turns out that what he meant to say all these years was, again in the words of the L.A. Times, "he never played in a pro football game and . . . his Harvard financial aid was not an athletic scholarship . . . ." Delgadillo claims to have played “a brief stint as a professional football player…”
Ace Smith, consultant for the Jerry Brown campaign said: “Mr. Delgadillo needs to take responsibility for these falsehoods and apologize for his actions. He should start by deleting the false statements about his non-existent pro-football career off his Rocky2006.com website.”
Born July 15, 1960, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is a native of Northeast Los Angeles. With his election as City Attorney in 2001, he became the first half-Latino to win citywide office in more than 100 years. Running unopposed, he was re-elected in March 2005 to a second four-year term.

Are these just the words of a few extremists? Consider I could fill up many pages with such quotes. Also, consider that these are mainstream Mexican leaders.

"No mas Amnestia" says Mitt Romney

"No mas Amnestia" says Mitt Romney.

The crowd at South Carolina's Republican convention cheered Saturday when Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney criticized a new immigration proposal and booed a key ally of U.S. Sen. John McCain when he defended it.
The immigration compromise between key senators and the White House played strongly at the convention as more than 1,000 delegates and Republican activists gathered. Many in the crowd wore stickers with "Senate amnesty bill" crossed out.
They cheered as presidential candidate Romney told them: "One simple rule: No amnesty."During his speech and before his remarks, Romney said a proposed new visa for immigrants amounts to amnesty if it can be renewed indefinitely.
"If that's not a form of amnesty, I don't know what is," Romney said.
South Carolina U.S. senator, Jim DeMint supports Romney and said he opposes an immigration bill that allows permanent residency of illegal aliens.
But some at the convention ridiculed Romney and accused him of being a Republican in name only, because of his changing stances on gun control, gay marriage and abortion.