Drugs cover for US military control
Panama scheme designed to prolong army presence
It is no secret that the United States - especially
those of its officials who reside within the Pentagon -
was always uncomfortable with the terms of the
Torrijos-Carter treaty.
The 1977 agreement finally ended the United States
`lease' in perpetuity of the Panama Canal. Under the
terms of the treaty, the canal zone reverted to
Panamanian control in 1977, while control of the canal
proper is scheduled to do so on 31 December 1999.
d concurrent with that loss of control is the final
removal - by 31 December 1999 - of all US soldiers from
their bases in the canal zone. Not surprisingly,
Washington's military mandarins were a little unhappy
at the prospect of having no military presence in such
a strategically vital area.
However, with just under two years to go to the
scheduled departure date of the last US soldier,
Washington has unveiled a scheme that would ensure its
military presence in the canal zone continues
indefinitely.
The scheme proposes the establishment of a Multilateral
Anti-drugs Centre (MAC) in the canal zone. The proposal
has already received the official backing of both the
US and Panamanian governments. However, to become a
reality, the MAC must also be approved by the senates
in both countries, while it will also be the subject of
a referendum in Panama.
The proposed site of the MAC would be Howard Base in
the canal zone, the largest US military installation in
Latin America.
In Panama, the MAC proposal has met with vociferous
opposition. Already over 50 popular organisations have
banded together in the Frente Unico to oppose the
centre's establishment.
Jacinto Gonzalez, a spokesman for Frente Unico,
characterised the proposed MAC as no more than a US
military base in disguise.
The Panamanian government has insisted the base will be
civilian in character, but concedes that there will be
an unspecified number of US military personnel among
its expected 2,500 staff.
d naturally, such an establishment would also be
expected to house high-tech listening and surveillance
equipment.
The US is currently seeking the support of Colombia,
Brazil and Mexico for the MAC.
The proposed centre mirrors US moves elsewhere in
Central America to establish a greater `presence' under
the auspices of the `war on drugs'.
Recently, Washington proposed to the government of
Costa Rica that it conduct joint patrols of Costa Rican
airspace, coastal waters and frontiers.
While it is expected Costa Rica will endorse the idea,
opponents point out that the US would be far better
served concentrating its efforts within its own
borders: it being the single largest consumer of
illicit drugs worldwide.
Refugee-maker is lauded
From a source located under deep cover in teletubby
land, comes news of a TV advertising campaign being run
by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR). The very laudable aim of the campaign is to
destroy the myth of refugees and asylum seekers as
little more than welfare spongers and workshy
fraudsters.
Thus the advertisement cites the example of some of
history's more famous refugees, among them the Nobel
prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi
Germany for the US in the 1930s.
However the advertisement comes somewhat unstuck - as
does the entire purpose of the ad campaign - with the
mention of another famous refugee from Europe, former
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Perhaps it
escaped the notice of those good souls in the UNHCR but
Henry Kissinger, during his years in office (1973-77),
probably did more to aid the growth of the global
refugee problem than any other postwar public official.
In late1974, Kissinger and then US president Ford gave
Indonesia's Suharto official approval for his invasion
of nearby East Timor. Since then a third of the East
Timorese population has been wiped out, while countless
thousands were made refugees. And throughout Latin
America, Kissinger's support for dictators (such as
Pinochet in Chile) ensured that many of the region's
citizenry were left with no option but to seek asylum
abroad.
Today, Henry runs Kissinger Associates, a consulting
firm which uses Kissinger's international `reputation'
to open doors for US firms in Latin America and Asia.
Henry's contacts in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and
Singapore have proved particularly useful. If Henry
represents the UNCHR's model of the `ideal refugee',
then heaven help us all.
Church and States plot with Cuban children
In New York, newly-discovered documents reveal the
existence of a particularly squalid scheme that was
designed to discredit and undermine Fidel Castro's rule
in Cuba.
Known as Operation Peter Pan, the plot was hatched by
the Central Intelligence Agency in collaboration with
Catholic Church authorities in New York, and opponents
of the revolution within Cuba.
Operation Peter Pan encouraged and aided the sending of
some 14,000 Cuban children (between the ages of six and
16) to the United States. The children belonged to
families who opposed the revolution. Once in the US,
they were to be used for propaganda purposes, a
supposed illustration of the essential heartlessness of
Cuba's new regime.
The children were dispatched between 1960-1962. Once in
place, their presence in the US was to be used to
`demand' their parents' exit from Cuba, thus promoting
the appearance of mass emigration and a revolution
severely at odds with its citizenry.
Naturally, the subsequent reunions would provide a vast
reservoir of `tearjerker' photo-opportunities for the
right-wing media.
However, the events now known as the Cuban Missile
Crisis intervened, in late 1962. Thereafter travel to
and from Cuba was suspended, eventually to be
prohibited altogether. Most of the planned `reunions'
never took place.
Without their propaganda value, the CIA (and the
church) quickly lost interest in the children. Many,
the recently-revealed documents now show, were
abandoned. Some ended up on the streets, were
dispatched to orphanages or were incarcerated in
juvenile detention centres. It is unlikely this story
will receive much coverage in the Western press.
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