U.S. Special Ops forces have been deployed in 18 countries in the americas

A Pentagon document has come to light that confirms the U.S. has put special operations troops on the ground in Mexico as the drug war there continues to escalate, notching some 40,000 murders since late 2006.

The document is a Department of Defense briefing presented in mid-May 2009 in Washington, D.C., to a group of business and political leaders from northwest Florida. The “Unclassified/For Official Use Only” briefing reveals the 18 Latin American nations where 7th Special Forces Group soldiers [Airborne Green Berets] were deployed as of fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, 2009. Among those nations, according to the briefing document, was Mexico.

The document also indicates a 7th Special Forces unit was deployed in Mexico in 1996 as well, as part of a “counter-narcotics” mission. The revelations in the briefing material are important because, to date, neither the Pentagon nor the State Department has confirmed that U.S. special forces have been deployed inside Mexico — a politically volatile subject in that Latin American nation given the rising drug-war death toll there and the “Yankee” history of U.S. Gunboat Diplomacy in the region.

From the vantage point of U.S. policymakers, the deployment of covert Pentagon special forces inside Mexico also is fraught with political peril, given the discovery of such operations by the targets, narco-traffickers in this case, could result in blowback against U.S. agents and interests in Mexico. It also could strain relations with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is already feeling increasingly isolated due to his disastrous drug-war policy.

The 7th Special Forces Group (SFG) has played a key role since the 1980s in the bellicose history of Latin America, according to the briefing document and other sources. The 7th SFG has participated in numerous “counter-insurgency” missions in Central America as well as in the invasion of Panama in late 1989. It also has been quite active over the years in counter-narcotics missions in the South America Andean Ridge Countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Peru Ecuador and Bolivia; and more recently in hostage rescue operations in Colombia.

The latter operation, according information in the briefing document, involved the participation of the 7th SFG in the July 2008 rescue of three DoD contractors and noted Colombian activist and politician Ingrid Betancourt, among others, who were being held as hostages by the leftist FARC guerrillas.

this story originally appeared in NarcoNews, U.S. Special Ops Troops Deployed in Mexico, Leaked Briefing Confirms

The confirmation that U.S. special forces are now in the mix of the drug-war violence, which Mexican citizens by the millions now see as senseless and resulting in far too much collateral damage (the death and disappearances of thousands of innocent victims), is certain to enhance the public outrage in that land — given the quite visible U.S. role as the major consumer of the drugs and the major exporter of weapons and policies fueling the drug war.

Given this madness, and the inherent duplicity, treachery and buffoonery marking the drug war, it should come as no surprise to anyone, even if their sympathies are not with the U.S. special-forces in Mexico whose lives are jeopardized due to leaks and other security lapses, that the source of those transgressions (intentional or not) is, in part, traceable to the U.S. side of the border.

The briefing document revealing the extent of the 7th SFG operations in Latin America in fiscal 2009 – in 18 countries involving 21 missions and 165 soldiers, including Mexico — was made public by a Florida business group whose membership includes a number of defense contractors. That group, the Economic Development Council for Okaloosa County (EDC), via its Defense Support Initiative, made the May 14, 2009, briefing available on its Web site for all to see and download — including WikiLeaks and some media in Latin America who made it available in Spanish to their audiences (almost assuring that the narco-trafficking organizations being targeted by covert U.S. special forces also were tipped off to their presence in Mexico).

This occurred despite the fact that the briefing document was marked “For Official Use Only,” which, according to Ken McGraw, spokesman for the Pentagon’s U.S. Special Operations Command, means the document was “not to be released publicly.” McGraw adds that he does not “know the specifics” of the 7th SFG operation referred to in the briefing document, explaining that “by the end of the year, we [USSOCOM] will have operations in 120 countries.”

That briefing was prepared by the 7th SFG at the request of U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a far-right Republican with Tea Party leanings whose Florida district is about to become the new home for the 7th SFG (which is relocating from Ft. Bragg in North Carolina to Elgin Air Force Base in Florida’s panhandle).

Oil company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace backfires

Today an Amsterdam court judge turned the tables on Cairn Energy. Rather than granting an injunction against Greenpeace, he instead suggested that the oil company might actually like to consider releasing its secret Arctic Oil Spill Response Plan!

Greenpeace protesters spent four days in a survival pod attached to the the Leiv Eiriksson rig. Cairn energy subsequently sued Greenpeace for lost revenue, but today a judge turned the tables by questioning why the oil giant would not simply release their “secret” oil cleanup plan.
Cairn’s lawyers looked dumbfounded and stuttered about not knowing why their client won’t release it.

The judge went on to say that BP’s skimping on a second valve cost the world billions as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He said BP must regret that they didn’t have their plans scrutinized in the first place because someone would have noticed the lack of a second valve. Safety is in everyone’s interest – by being transparent perhaps there is an opportunity to make the spill plan stronger. In fact, he asked Cairn, why won’t you release your plan? Right now? Why don’t you release it now?

We couldn’t have said it better.

We’ll try and get this news through to the eighteen activists currently in jail in Greenland. They were arrested after scaling Cairn’s rig in the Arctic on Saturday to demand the plan be made public. For them this will be happy vindication of their action.

Cairn’s lawyers used the same tired excuses saying they could not release the plan as this would be against the wishes of the Greenlandic authorities. However our independent legal advice shows that this is a load of rubbish.

There is nothing whatsoever stopping Cairn releasing the plan.

By this time the Cairn lawyers were sweating a bit, but the judge still wasn’t finished.

He went on to ask how Cairn would pay for any oil spill clean up. He was highly unimpressed when Cairn’s legal team tried to reassure him that it had a cap on financial exposure. The judge said he didn’t think the concern is over the health of Cairn’s finances – the concern is the impact on the environment and the cost of the clean up!

So, now the Dutch court is joining us and the 18 activists currently jailed in Greenland in demanding the secret oil spill response plan be made public.

Cairn should cease drilling operations immediately. It does not need to wait for the final ruling to release the secret spill plan. They can do it now. Their claim in court that they cannot because Greenland is preventing it is bogus. Every minute it’s allowed to drill in the Arctic poses an unacceptable threat to the pristine environment in a search for oil we cannot afford to burn.

Cairn took a beating in the court room today trying to silence peaceful protest and hide from public scrutiny. The people of Greenland should be very worried about the kind of people who are drilling for oil off their coast. And their investors should be asking themselves just what it is that no one is being allowed to see, and how big a risk they are exposing themselves to.

The Judge will make a final ruling on the injunction on Wednesday evening. It’s not over yet – so watch this space.

For now we’ll stay put here in the Davis Strait off the coast of Greenland.

42 million people displaced by natural disasters in 2010

About 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said today (NZ time).

One reason for the increase in the figure could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the impact of “mega-disasters” such as the massive floods in China and Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.

It said more than 90 per cent of the disaster displacements were caused by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms that were probably impacted by global warming, but it couldn’t say to what extent.

“The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is increasing, and this trend is only set to continue. With all probability, the number of those affected and displaced will rise as human-induced climate change comes into full force,” said Elisabeth Rasmusson, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The monitoring center and refugee council presented the report at an international conference about climate change and displacement in Oslo.

The number of people displaced last year — about 42 million — is roughly the size of Argentina’s entire population, and the onslaught of natural disasters so far this year also has been grim.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan left more than 10,000 people dead, some 17,500 missing and about a half-million homeless.

In the United States, tornadoes have wreaked havoc from Alabama to Massachusetts, while floods have inundated states from Montana to Louisiana. In the southwest Missouri city of Joplin, the US’s deadliest tornado in six decades killed at least 141 people and destroyed more than 8000 homes in a city of about 50,000 people.

Speaking at the Oslo conference, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called the issue of climate-related displacement “the defining challenge of our times” and criticised the international community for lacking the political will to reduce to pace of climate change.

via Disasters displace millions – europe – world | Stuff.co.nz.

“There is increasing evidence to suggest that natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity and that this is linked to the longer-term process of climate change,” Guterres said.

Asia was the hardest hit region last year, with the largest number of displaced people seen in countries such as India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, China and Pakistan.

In China alone, more than 15 million people were forced to leave their homes following floods, while 11 million people were displaced in Pakistan, the report said. The large floods in India in 2009 also continued to force people to leave their homes in 2010.

“This report provides us with evidence of the extent and urgency of the problem that we cannot ignore. We must increase collaborative efforts to prevent displacement by natural disasters, and do a better job of protecting those displaced,” Rasmusson said.