Paraguay to stop giving US troops immunity
Washington Post, United States - 7 hours ago ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) - Paraguay will stop granting US troops immunity from prosecution next year in an about-face aimed at coordinating policies with
http://globalgeopolitics.net/wordpress/?m=20061002October 3, 2006 2:01 AM
Bush Waiver Restores Military Training
WASHINGTON (AP) - Twenty-one countries that had been denied participation in U.S. military training programs are now eligible to take part again under a presidential waiver announced Monday (October 2) by the White House.
All 21 had run afoul of the Bush administration and U.S. law by refusing to sign an agreement with the United States that would exempt Americans from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
The administration has taken a tough line against the ICC since its creation in 2002 out of concern that Americans overseas, including military personnel, diplomats and ordinary citizens, could be subject to politically motivated ICC prosecutions.
The following countries are affected by the waiver: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Kenya, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, Trinidad and Uruguay.
snip
Scores of countries have gone along with U.S. requests to exempt Americans from ICC prosecutions. Others, however, refused to bend to U.S. pressure, and the result in many countries has been a sharp decline in their military ties with the United States.
Pentagon officials have told Congress that China has been filling the vacuum created by the suspension of training programs in 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Gen. Bantz Craddock, who oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America, said in Senate testimony last March that military members of all ranks in the region are receiving training in China. In addition, he said, more and more Chinese non-lethal military equipment is showing up in the region.
snip
Bush in Paraguay (Update) - Escape + Water, Drugs, Oil, etc.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Bush in Paraguay (Update)
Wonkette, of all sites, has a superb rundown of a story
:
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/george-w.-bush/we-hate-to-bring-up-the-nazis-but-they-fled-to-south-america-too-208549.phpwe first told a few days ago: Bush the elder has purchased nearly a hundred thousand acres in northern Paraguay, apparently adjacent to, or carved from, the 1,482,600 acres (!!!) owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Bush family's most notorious friend. Regarding the latter spread, this story (brought to my attention by a reader) is a must-read:
Nevertheless, national Senator Domingo Laino sees a different pattern in Moon's acquisitions. "There are two principal branches to Moon's interest in Paraguay," he said, "control of the largest fresh drinking water source in the world and control of the narcotics business", which is so prevalent in this area.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/unif/unif240.htmlOil in region:
Small Talk: South American oil minnow Chaco is worth exploring
By Michael Jivkov
Published: 16 October 2006
The South American oil and gas explorer Chaco Resources may well be worth keeping an eye on in the weeks ahead. Recent news from the AIM group has focused on its operations in Colombia, but word has it that an important announcement is on the way regarding its interests in Paraguay.
Chaco is said to be close to a deal with the government of the landlocked South American country which would double the size of its acreage there. News of the coup for the company could come as early as this week. The bloc Chaco hopes to win sits on a geological structure that runs into Brazil, where it is already producing oil. Given this fact, it is very likely that the Paraguayan side will also prove to be a success for explorers.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article1876763.eceOctober 18, 2006
Bush in Paraguay (Update)
Wonkette, of all sites, has a superb rundown of a story we first told a few days ago: Bush the elder has purchased nearly a hundred thousand acres in northern Paraguay, apparently adjacent to, or carved from, the 1,482,600 acres (!!!) owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Bush family's most notorious friend. Regarding the latter spread, this story (brought to my attention by a reader) is a must-read:
Nevertheless, national Senator Domingo Laino sees a different pattern in Moon's acquisitions. "There are two principal branches to Moon's interest in Paraguay," he said, "control of the largest fresh drinking water source in the world and control of the narcotics business", which is so prevalent in this area.
(Emphasis added.) Y'think Poppy and Dubya want a piece of the action?
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/10/bush-in-paraguay-update.htmlInvestment firms snatching up power plants, plus three more industry trends explained by Hoover's Editors. Read more or download a free report.
Europe Intelligence Wire/October 14, 2004
Paraguay -- The Reverend Moon has carved out a section of Paraguay that is twice the size of Luxembourg. Seamus Mirodan went to see it
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, spiritual leader of the Unification Church, self-proclaimed Messiah, multimillionaire and a generous contributor to the US Republican Party, has been showing a strong interest over the last five years in little-known Paraguay at the centre of the South American continent.
Since 1999, Rev Moon has built his personal empire which begins on the marshy banks of the River Paraguay and stretches beyond the hazy, level horizon through 600,000 hectares of arid land - equivalent to more than two Luxembourgs - punctuated by solitary clusters of withered trees and sad bushes which struggle desperately for air.
The scorching sun beats relentlessly on one of Latin America's most desolate zones. It is here in the northern province of Chaco, directly above the GuaranI aquifer, the largest resource of fresh drinking water in the world, where Moon's associates claim he wishes to build an ecological paradise.
Nevertheless, national Senator Domingo Laino sees a different pattern in Moon's acquisitions. "There are two principal branches to Moon's interest in Paraguay," he said, "control of the largest fresh drinking water source in the world and control of the narcotics business", which is so prevalent in this area. "President Lula told me that Brazil took serious measures to curb Moon a few years back as it became evident that he was buying up the border between our two countries," said the senator.
Allegations from local law enforcement officials support this claim. The so-called Dr Montiel, Paraguay's drugs tsar from 1976-89, said: "The fact that they came and bought in Chaco and on both sides of the Brazilian border is very telling. It is an enormously strategic point in both the narcotics and arms trades and indeed the available intelligence clearly shows that the Moon sect is involved in both these enterprises."
Paraguay is the major drugs port through which virtually all the cocaine produced by Bolivia and Peru passes. In the world's second most corrupt country, "the ease of buying influence is second to none", said Montiel. "Corruption reaches dangerous levels and he who wants transparency in Paraguay is a dead man. Indeed the famous Iran contra affair was operated from Ciudad del Este" on the south-east Paraguayan border with Argentina and Brazil.
-snip
http://www.rickross.com/reference/unif/unif240.html