From the oped:
“In an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade. The commission includes the former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, a former secretary general of the United Nations, human rights leaders, and business and government leaders, including Richard Branson, George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today.
. . .
The commission’s facts and arguments are persuasive. It recommends that governments be encouraged to experiment “with models of legal regulation of drugs … that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.” For effective examples, they can look to policies that have shown promising results in Europe, Australia and other places.”

Read the entire oped here.

For immediate release:

What: Reminding Chairman Engel of the impunity with which U.S. journalist Brad Will was murdered over a year ago, Friends of Brad Will activist Henry Ruben and others are forcefully removed from public hearing.

Time: 10:50 a.m., February 7th

Details:
Congressional Rep. Engels called for Capitol police as Ruben and other activists demanded that opponents of Plan Mexico like the United Steelworkers union, Global Exchange or Witness for Peace be invited to testify. Challenging the series of unbalanced Congressional hearings in which only boosters of the Bush/Calderon ’security pact’ were invited to testify, Ruben warned that Engel’s committee had shown no interest in widespread opposition to Plan Mexico in the U.S. and Mexico and that this risked green-lighting a lethal aid package which would have harmful impacts on human rights activists, workers, and dissidents in Mexico if it were to pass.

Press Contact: Robert Jereski: 212.973.1782; Charlene Debentour: 718.435. 0908

Call with questions re. Detention of Mr. Ruben and others:

Representative Eliot Engel
Chair, Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs
202-225-2464

Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs
202.226.9980

Please call both numbers and urge Engel to:

i. Say ‘NO!’ to Plan Mexico;

ii. Have released from Capitol Police custody Henry Ruben and other activists of Friends of Brad Will who were ordered by Engel to be ejected from a public Congressional (sham) hearing on Plan Mexico. 3rd one without opponents to the Bush ‘drug war’ initiative!

For Immediate Release

What: Protest of Sham Congressional Hearing on Bush’s proposed Plan Mexico
When: Thursday 10am at Rm 2212 of the Rayburn House Office Building

Press Advisory: Friends of murdered U.S journalist and activist, Brad Will Challenge Bush Administration Plan Mexico
- Protest Third Congressional Hearings Featuring only Supporters of the Secretive Bush/Calderon initiative

CONTACT: Robert Jereski, 212.973.1782; Harry Bubbins at 646-641-5788

Friends of murdered U.S journalist and activist, Brad Will are challenging the Bush Administration’s secretive Plan Mexico. President Bush is trying to obtain Congressional approval of the $1.5 billion military aid package to Mexico under the pretext of fighting the widely criticized “war on drugs.”

The Friends of Brad Will – a network of friends and family of the U.S. journalist, murdered covering demonstrations by teachers and their supporters in the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca – are seeking accountability for his murder in October 2006 and justice for other civilians and activists killed by the same security forces and covered up by the same government institutions that would be rewarded by the $1.5 billion package of lethal aid paid for with U.S taxpayer revenue.

On Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 10:00 a.m, a congressional subcommittee in D.C will convene to discuss “U.S. Obligations under the Merida Initiative.” Congressman Eliot Engel – Chair of the House Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs – has again chosen to listen only to supporters of the Bush Administration initiative. Details of the secretive plan have not even been revealed to the members of the relevant Congressional Committees thereby preventing Congress from exercising effective oversight of the multi-year $1.5 billion spending package.

Members of Friends of Brad Will will attend the hearing to demand fair Congressional hearings which consider the many voices in opposition to this security pact. Harry Bubbins, a former colleague of Brad Will and an organizer with Friends of Brad Will declared that “these (Congressional) hearings are a sham. You have no person representing the serious public concerns about the dangers of Plan Mexico. But you have 6 Administration officials reading from a script about how it’s not going to be like Plan Colombia!”

“What happened to Congressional oversight and co-equal branches of government the Constitution requires?” said Priya Reddhy, a journalist and former colleague of Brad Will. “The Steelworkers have come out against the Plan but we don’t see them here because they weren’t invited!”

In November, 2007, the United Steelworkers union declared their opposition to the pact, joining human rights and fair trade/economic development advocates like Friends of Brad Will and Global Exchange. Recently the Latin American watchdog organization – Witness for Peace – urged their members to contact relevant Congress people to allow popular concerns about the proposed agreement to inform Congressional inquiry.

Friends of Brad Will demands that serious reforms of the Mexican judiciary and police forces precede any military aid being proposed to Mexican government institutions. The organization also demands that the murderers of Brad Will – caught on his own video camera and witnessed in broad daylight by many journalists and others – be brought to justice along with innocent Mexicans murdered by security forces before any lethal aid is extended to Mexican government institutions.

Mexican security forces are notorious for the impunity they enjoy for the murders of human rights abuses across Mexico.

Background

PM is a secret “security pact” supposedly intended to expand the ‘drug war’ in Mexico, but which would provide lethal equipment – including
helicopters, surveillance equipment, and lethal training to brutal Mexican security forces and corrupt government institutions. US weaponry and training has been used by Mexican officials to repress violently dissent and leftist and indigenous movements.

Much more information is available: http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/category/plan-mexico/

Expose Plan Mexico/Oaxaca Murders- Washington, DC

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman

No to Plan Mexico! Accountability for the murder of US journalist Brad Will and other innocents killed by the same security forces and covered up by the same government institutions which would be rewarded by this Bush/Calderon “human insecurity” pact.

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
You are respectfully requested to attend the following OPEN hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, to be held in Room 2212 of
the Rayburn House Office Building:
DATE: Thursday, February 7, 2008
TIME: 10:00 a.m.
SUBJECT: U.S. Obligations under the Merida Initiative
WITNESSES: The Honorable Thomas A. Shannon
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
U.S. Department of State
more…
NOTE: Witnesses may be added.
By Direction of the Chairman

Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman

Your calls and emails are having an impact!! Keep them coming! Outrageous that they continue to provide public relations opportunities for boosters of plan mexico but no opportunities to learn from opponents!

No to Plan Mexico! Accountability for the murder of US journalist Brad Will and other innocents killed by the same security forces and covered up by the same government institutions which would be rewarded by this Bush/Calderon “human insecurity” pact.

We need to be in DC for this!!!

January 31, 2008

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

You are respectfully requested to attend the following OPEN hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, to be held in Room 2212 of the Rayburn House Office Building:

DATE: Thursday, February 7, 2008

TIME: 10:00 a.m.

SUBJECT: U.S. Obligations under the Merida Initiative

WITNESSES: The Honorable Thomas A. Shannon

Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
U.S. Department of State
more…

NOTE: Witnesses may be added.

By Direction of the Chairman

The Friends of Brad Will attended the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Oversight Hearing Overview of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America on March 1st to press for the appropriate investigation of the murder of US journalist Brad Will in Oaxaca, Mexico in October of 2006. The Friends of Brad Will is a national network working with the Will family for justice and accountability in his murder, and for an end to the impunity of human rights
violations in Oaxaca, Mexico.

March 2nd, 2007

Photos at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/87705136@N00/

Contact: Robert Jereski mutualaid at earthlink dot net
www.friendsofbradwill.org

Advocates with FoBW met with all of the members of the influential Sub-Committee that guides American policy in Central and Latin America, and spoke directly to the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, Thomas A. Shannon, Jr..

The Sub Committee was a wide ranging question and answer session with a great deal of focus on US policy and financial leverage to end the impunity of human rights abuses throughout the region.

Congress Member Gregory Meeks, (Dem, Brooklyn) indicated the presence of Friends of Brad Will from New York City in the capacity crowd and used his limited time to ask the Assistant Secretary directly about the status of the investigation into the murder of Brad Will. Mr. Shannon indicated that he had just spoken with representatives from FoBW and unfortunatley did not
have current information, but committed to getting back to the Congress Member and the Sub Committee as well as FoBW.

This was an important watershed in the ongoing effort to hold accountable the responsible parties for the murder of US journalist and activist Brad Will, and to draw further attention to the ongoing situation in Oaxaca, Mexico that Mr. Will was reprting on.

Friends of Brad Will advocate, Robert Jereski stated, “We are encouraged by our reception on Capital Hill and the great interest in the Brad Will case, following the recent visit by the Will family here. It is imperative that we build on this momentum and continue to contact our Representatives in Washington DC, Congress members and Senators alike, from both sides of the
aisle.”

Another Friends of Brad Will advocate from New York City, Harry Bubbins noted, “Justice is sometimes not swift. Now we have a unique opening to shine the spotlight from Washington DC to Oaxaca, Mexico, which is what Brad was interested in.” Bubbins encouraged the national network to stay focused on Brad’s case and to reach out to their Washington DC elected officials.

Friends of Brad Will also met with human rights activists from a variety of organizations all involved in pressing for justice in the Oaxaca, Mexcio region.

_______________________
Background Weblink: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19564

As Reporters without Borders has noted, two officials who had been arrested in relation to the murder were released, despite witness accounts and other evidence that they fired in Will’s direction.

“The findings of the autopsies carried out on Will were rigged by the authorities in order to blame his murder on activists … whose protests Will was covering,” Reporters Without Borders said.