FBI may investigate Salvadoran congressmen murder

[maddezmom]

GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Central American authorities have asked the FBI to help solve the murder of three Salvadoran representatives to Central America's regional parliament in Guatemala this week.

"There is a section of the FBI that works with Central America and we are inviting them to give us a hand," Guatemalan President Oscar Berger told reporters on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the FBI said it would be willing to help the investigation if asked.

~snip~

The three congressmen were traveling in a convoy with other legislators overland from El Salvador and were accompanied by Guatemalan police on the highway.

Once they reached the capital, the congressmen's cars went their separate ways without police protection, Guatemalan authorities said. D'Aubuisson, Pichinte and Gonzalez never showed up at their hotel.
more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21368294.htm

[carla]

1. Suspicious.

The killing of the driver and these 3 congressmen from El Salvador is not a matter of national interest to the United States. That Mr. Berger is enlisting the aid of the FBI indicates that there was some political interest on the part of the US government. Considering that the Arena Party has close links with the GOP, and that these killings can be seen as a warning to other rightwing politicos, I wonder just what they were planning to "talk about" with their Guatemalan "colleagues"? It would serve the USA to avoid such unseemly entanglements in this pattern of revenge/response. Notice that there was no "targeting" of any other legislators in the convoy? This seems to me to be a killing based on past crimes associated with certain family members of the deceased and the blood of thousands, including that of Guatemalans, does stain the family lines of many a Salvadoran legislator. The FBI should be busy trying to figure out how 19 hijackers managed to go unnoticed in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and not be busying themselves with this blood feud in a foreign land.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The story was very strange, BEFORE they are said to have requested the FBI's help.

It doesn't seem that long ago since the FBI tracked down a 72 year old man, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a nationalist, to his hometown in Puerto Rico, and shot him, leaving him to die on the floor of his house, refusing to let his wife go in to help him, or to bring him out to get help, and let him die over a period of many hours.



Giving them the upper hand in this case seems very odd. You'd expect the Guatemalan government to handle it, wouldn't you?

[carla]

4. Actually, JudiLynn,

the FBI is extremely good at covering up "unpleasant truth". Perhaps that is why they have been "requested"?

[bemildred]

3. Seems obvious that someone was sending a message.

Such open defiance will be taken seriously, and the FBI has been meddling in the imperial satrapies for some time now, I suppose because the military is too busy. But, from the sound of it, someone was waiting for the three dead guys, which means the perps had inside information. It is hard to see how the FBI, coming in from outside, is going to be able to do anything the local cops don't want to have done, and it sounds like at least some of the local cops were complicit.

[maddezmom]

5. update: 4 Guatemalans arrested in 3 killings

GUATEMALA CITY - Four Guatemalan men were arrested Thursday in connection with the killing of three Central American Parliament members, including the son of the alleged founder of El Salvador's death squads.

The assailants repeatedly shot Eduardo D'Abuisson, son of El Salvador's late right-wing leader Roberto D'Abuisson, two other Salvadoran officials and their driver before setting them on fire while they were still alive, officials said. Their charred bodies were found Monday along a road about 20 miles southeast of Guatemala City.

Radio Sonora reported the suspects are two high-ranking police officials and two police investigators. All four, the radio said, were assigned to a special unit to combat youth gangs.

On Thursday, police spokeswoman Maria Jose Fernandez told The Associated Press four suspects were being held, but declined to confirm if they were members of the police department or give any details until officials hold a press conference later in the day.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guatemala_bodies_found

[Judi Lynn]

6. Amazing, maddezmom. Some DU'er apparently hit this right on the head,

in a post right after the murders happened. The DU'er foretold it just might somehow be connected to the police.

Now THAT'S interesting.

It's also interesting that they just happened to grab these suspects this quickly. I really want to hear more about this.

Thanks for your quick work.

On edit:

There is a correction needed, on something El Salvador's President Tony Saca said, however:

President Tony Saca and other leading members of the ARENA party received D'Abuisson's body Wednesday. D'Abuisson, whose father founded ARENA, was to be buried Thursday.

"This is one of the saddest days in the history of the ARENA party, and one of the saddest days in the history of El Salvador," said Saca, who is to meet with President Bush next week. Saca said the FBI has been asked for help in the investigation.
(snip)

One of the SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF EL SALVADOR was actually a day the father of the most famous of the 3 murder victims did his best work: the slaughter of perhaps a thousand peasant citizens in El Mozote, El Salvador. May they ALL rest in peace, and the d'Aubuissons never find peace again.

[struggle4progress]

7. Guatemala should look at the Madrid bombing case before accepting FBI help:

Spain turned the FBI down

Shut Out? ...
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Newsweek
Updated: 4:13 p.m. CT March 17, 2004
March 17 - Spanish authorities have ignored FBI efforts to assist the investigation into last week’s train bombing, creating new tensions between Washington and Madrid in the case ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4549412/site/newsweek/

But the FBI was still eager to show how "helpful" they could be -- and tried to frame Brandon Mayfield

FBI Apologizes to Oregon Lawyer
... As additional evidence in support of Mayfield’s arrest, the FBI pointed to Mayfield’s attendance at a local mosque ... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120783,00.html

Mother of detained lawyer says son isn't terrorist
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 Posted: 12:39 PM EDT (1639 GMT)
... Mayfield had represented Jeffrey Battle, one of the chief defendants in the so-called "Portland Seven" case, in an unrelated child custody dispute ...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/05/08/mayfield.mother/index.html?eref=sitesearch

Later the FBI apparently helped catch someone the Spanish wanted to question in connection with the case -- and he disappeared into the ghostly gulag

From Times Online
February 15, 2007
Spain furious as US blocks access to Madrid bombing 'chief'
Sean O’Neill

The al-Qaeda leader who created, trained and directed the terrorist cell that carried out the Madrid train bombings has been held in a CIA “ghost prison” for more than a year ...

He was detained in October 2005 as he shopped for breakfast in Quetta, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistani intelligence agents shot Setmarian’s Saudi bodyguard dead but were under specific instructions to take Setmarian alive.

The FBI had offered a $5 million reward for his capture and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan stated in his recent memoirs that his country has received substantial sums in bounties from the US authorities.

Within a month of his capture Setmarian was handed over to the United States authorities and spirited away for interrogation at one of their secret prisons. His first stop was probably Bagram airbase, near Kabul, but his current whereabouts are unknown ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1391123.ece

Of course, Brandon Mayfield was targeted as a lawyer as part of a larger administration strategy

EDITORIAL
Round Up the Usual Lawyers
Published: January 13, 2007
... Speaking this week on Federal News Radio, a Web site and AM radio station offering helpful hints for bureaucrats and helpful news for the administration, Cully Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, tried to rally American corporations to stop doing business with law firms that represent inmates of the Guantánamo internment camp.

It does not seem to matter to Mr. Stimson, who is a lawyer, that a great many of those detainees did not deserve imprisonment, let alone the indefinite detention to which they are subjected as “illegal enemy combatants.” And forget about the fundamental American right that everyone should have legal counsel, even the most heinous villain.

In his interview, reported yesterday by The Washington Post editorial page, Mr. Stimson rattled off some of the most respected law firms in the country that, after initial hesitation, have courageously respected that right. He called it “shocking” that they were “representing detainees down there” and suggested that when corporate America got word of this dastardly behavior, “those C.E.O.’s are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.” He added: “We want to watch that play out.” ... http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/opinion/13sat1.html?ex=1326344400&en=5c8f280cebc256b0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Gitmo win likely cost Navy lawyer his career
'Fearless' defense of detainee a stinging loss for Bush
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift -- the Navy lawyer who beat the president of the United States in a pivotal Supreme Court battle over trying alleged terrorists -- figures he'll probably have to find a new job ... http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/276109_swift01.html

COMMENT | posted February 17, 2005 (March 7, 2005 issue)
The Lynne Stewart Trial
DAVID COLE ...
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050307/cole

This 2004 Madrid bombing, in which Ashcroft's FBI was so eager to involve itself and yet so unhelpful, also had curious relations to the Spanish and American elections that year, a fact Guatemalans may want to remember as Guatemala heads towards elections and Gonzales' FBI becomes involved in this strange multiple homicide case.

The rightwing Aznar government lied about supposed ETA involvement in the bombing

THE TERROR WEB
by LAWRENCE WRIGHT

... A top Spanish police official, a political appointee, told me that authorities had planned a major strike against ETA for March 12th, the last official day of campaigning ... The police no longer considered ETA capable of carrying off such an elaborate attack. Moreover, the telephones of known ETA collaborators were bugged. “The bad guys were calling each other, saying, ‘Was it us? It’s craziness!’ ” a senior intelligence official said ... That evening, however, Aznar called the editors of Spain’s newspapers. “ETA is behind the attacks,” he assured them ... http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/040802fa_fact?fact/040802fa_fact

Caught lying, and losing the election, the Aznar government then purged its records

Aznar 'wiped files on Madrid bombings'
All computer records in PM's office destroyed, says Zapatero

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Tuesday December 14, 2004
The Guardian

Spain's former prime minister José María Aznar wiped all computer records at his office referring to the March 11 Madrid train bombings and the rest of his period of government, his successor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said yesterday ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1373280,00.html

With this unexpected loss of Bush's ally Aznar, the American rightwing next began to demand a mechanism for postponing elections in the US

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day
Monday, July 12, 2004 Posted: 7:35 PM EDT (2335 GMT)

... Newsweek said the discussions about whether the November 2 election could be postponed started with a recent letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission ...

Newsweek reported that Soaries expressed concern that no federal agency had the authority to postpone an election and asked Ridge to ask Congress to give his commission such power ... http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/

[Eugene]

8. Reuters: Guatemala police arrested in politicians' killings

Guatemala police arrested in politicians' killings
23 Feb 2007 00:07:28 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Four Guatemalan policemen were arrested on
Thursday in the murder of three Salvadoran politicians after being linked to the
crime by a global positioning system in their vehicle, the government said.

Luis Herrera, the head of a special police unit charged with investigating organized
crime, was captured after the GPS receiver in his police truck revealed he had been
at the scene of the kidnapping and the site where the bodies were found, authorities
told reporters.

Herrera, along with three men from his unit, was also filmed by traffic cameras as he
intercepted a car carrying the three members of the Guatemala-based Central American
regional parliament and their driver, the officials added.

The detained policemen "obviously" did not know the GPS was in their vehicle when
they carried out the killings, Guatemalan police chief Erwin Sperisen said.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22488025.htm

[Judi Lynn]

9. It's interesting to discover, if you do a quick search, d'Aubuisson's death squad father,

Roberto d'Aubuisson, Sr. was called "Major Blowtorch," or "Mayor So-plete," when you put that together with the fact they burned "Major Blowtorch's" son beyond recognition.

The death squads were also very deeply involved in torture, and there's a very matter-of-fact account of their activities in this link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=6xTklQxPGe8C&pg=RA1-PA133&lpg=RA1-PA133&dq=guatemala+%22roberto+d+aubuisson%22+blowtorch&source=web&ots=pFo8MUEkDY&sig=w_YPR3kH3PXhegkoZRO5UMFAGfc#PRA1-PA132,M1

Information concerning the father available around page #132, in the chapter "Descent into Anarchy, The Guatemala Connection, and some interesting material on "Millionaires' Murder, Inc.," concerning 6 very wealthy Salvadoran exile men living in Miami who financed a lot of activity in the death squads.

This is very good information, and very unlike anything our own media will lower itself to discuss with Americans, even though our own government was intimately involved in this madness.

There's also material concerning the American ambassador and his discussion with ArchBishop Romero, not long before they murdered him. Very thought-provoking.