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TODAY'S CONTENTS
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*Feature Article: Outrageous Internet Group Warfare
in Major Costa Rica Group


*News Digest

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FEATURE ARTICLE
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*Feature Article: Outrageous Internet Group Warfare
in Major Costa Rica Group

Just today, a letter to the editor of online publication AMCosta Rica
sparked a backlash out outrageous proportions from Chuck Leaky, the
qurky, hard headed moderator of the internet newsgroup for Costa Rica
discussions called Gallo Pinto.

As his response to one of his subcriber's letter to the editor, he
banned that member from the list.

Here are Leaky's words on the subject:

"Apparent Deterioration: From the looks of things either
the editorial policies of the morning Online News
Thingee from --- and supposedly about Costa Rica --- has
been taken over by its Hard Copy Left Wing competitor.
The Letters Section today included two frothy-mouthed
attack pieces against the United States of America. One
allowed by an unnamed source from an unnamed location
--- and the other from a one-time member of GalloPinto.
The Old Factotum can do nothing about the former, but
the latter complainer and defiler will never again be a
member of this group, at least under his own name. I am
very surprised that what could have been a very good
addition to the Costa Rica news scene has lost any
semblance of fairness and objectivity and turned at
least part of its LETTERS space into just another
second-rate-left-wing-favoring-muckmongering venue
against the United States. Perhaps those old days of
being a journalism professor make it just too difficult
to be fair-minded and objective.

Sea feliz,

chuck"

+++++++++++++++++++++

Now, here are the letters that generated such a vitriolic attack by
Leaky. Do you consider any of the letter below to be "frothy mounted?"

If you do, I guess you have found a friend in Chuckie, So you should
benefit from joining his little Nazi fiefdom.

If any of you members of the Costa Rica list comments on this topic,
you are free to send your comments there. For non list subscribers,
we suggest you join the group right now so that you can be guaranteed to
receive each edition of this newsletter every time it comes out.

Now, onto the entertainment for today. Do any of you see any "froth"
in the letters below, and can you IMAGINE ever being thrown off of
an internet discussion board for writing one of these to another
publication.

OK, so on with the insanity:

"Letters to the editor
Readers think that U.S.
should evaluate itself

EDITOR’S NOTE: The three letters that follow respond to the U.S. report on

human rights published here Tuesday.


Let’s match U.S. with Costa Rica

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The U.S. incarcerates more people per 100,000 than any other country in the

world, including the former USSR. In addition, their prisons are so

overcrowded with non-violent drug offenders that building new jails has

become a national interest.

I wonder how the U.S. compares to C.R.? Probably much worse! Of course a

comparison wasn't included in the report. It would have been good to see some

comparative statistics in your article. It would be good for the morale of

Ticos.
Aaron Lagadyn
Nanaimo, B.C., Canada

Let’s clean up our backyard

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The US government apparently forgot to include one country in its analysis of

civil rights infractions in 196 countries — itself!!

The Bible teaches us to cast the mote from our own eye before we point out

.the splinter in our neighbors'. The Christian-oriented administration in the

U.S. seems to enjoy applying the teachings of Christ only when it serves

their own purposes. I do not condemn Christianity, only the hypocrites that

.use it, or for that matter, any other religion, to further their own ends.

Compared to some countries, I have no doubt the U.S. would score well, but it

would not fare as well as most industrial nations, in main part due to its

involvement in the Middle East and its attacks on socialist-leaning

.governments. Let's clean up our own backyard before we attack our neighbors

in our ever shrinking globe.
John French
Philadelphia

Report is just more hypocrisy

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Your piece this morning on the A.M. Costa Rica Web site regarding that annual

hypocrisy known as the U.S. State Department Report On Human .Rights was

notable more for what it left out than what it included. It .never mentioned

human rights abuses in the United States — which are .becoming as egregious

as anywhere in the hemisphere. So to correct that omission, here is what

that State Department report and your description of it would have included

had it been honest:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The human rights situation in the United States continues to deteriorate. A

presidential election in which numerous and serious statistical anomalies,

nearly all in favor of the winning candidate, remain unaddressed by official

investigatory agencies, is symptomatic of .increasing impunity and a

declining respect for the rule of law.

The public pronouncements about human rights and self determination are

.increasingly belied by discussions, within the administration, of such

.possible activities as the "Salvador option" as a means of imposing its

.will in countries it militarily occupies, through the implementation of

death-squad activity and state-sponsored terror as it did in El Salvador two

decades ago. With the active encouragement and help of the administration,

the press in the United States increasingly engages in self-censorship, and

has done little reporting on these and similar domestic human rights issues.

The administration has recently been accused of stacking the White House

press corps with at least one ."journalist" who was apparently present for

the purpose of asking .questions the administration wanted asked.

Subversion of foreign governments, including those with widespread support,

continues, while private individuals engaging in foreign subversion supported

by the U.S. government remain unpunished. Many of the dissidents recently

arrested and jailed by Cuba were found to have been carrying large amounts of

cash in U.S. dollars, traced to the U.S. .Interests Section, but while the

United States continues to make angry pronouncements about the fate of those

people, the individuals who were .responsible for the bombing of the Cubana

Airlines plane in the Bahamas three decades ago, leading to the death of

dozens of people, remain at .large and unpursued.

One of the persons believed to have been part of that plot currently holds a

position of considerable responsibility in the government of the State of

Florida. Another person who operated death squads and a subversion campaign

in Nicaragua in the 1980s in contravention of U.S. law and defiance of the

U.S. Congress, is now the host of a popular national television program.

Pronouncements about the right of other nations to pursue self determination

remain unhonored by the current government of the United States. 2004 saw

the United States funneling arms to rebels within .Haiti through Grenada and

the Dominican Republic for the purpose of overthrowing a freely elected

government which enjoyed considerable .popular support, and replacing it with

a friendlier government run by persons closely associated with the FRAPH and

Tonton Macoute thugs of .the deposed "Papa Doc" Duvalier government.

Agents sponsored by the .United States engaging in subversion against the

government of Venezuela continue to be caught and arrested by that

government, in spite of the fact that the current government's support of the

people was overwhelmingly reaffirmed in a referendum widely regarded as free

and fair.

Domestic repression in the United States continues to increase. Dissidents

continue to be harassed and intimidated; those even remotely considered a

threat but who are not particularly high-profile, occasionally find

themselves jailed on trumped-up "terrorism" charges, detained indefinitely

without charge, or find themselves fleeing into .exile.

Demonstrations are frequently repressed, often violently, and .police abuses

of those arrested usually go unpunished. Officers of charities who look

after the rights of those detained for political .reasons are often harassed

and intimidated, placed on "watch lists." This year it was revealed that the

United States occasionally engages in .a process it calls "extraordinary

rendition," by which it occasionally .sends detained persons to other

countries known to engage freely in the brutal torture of persons in

detention.

At least two of the victims of .this procedure are known to have been killed,

and several more are known to have sustained permanent debilitating injuries.

For these reasons, the numbers of people fleeing from the United States for

political reasons has recently increased dramatically over the last year,

particularly since the election; an absolute minimum of 200 per .month

(possibly has high as several thousand) are known to be settling in Latin

America, Canada and Europe. In response, the United States government is

exerting pressure on the recipient nations to tighten their residency

requirements.

The United States continues to detain suspects it calls "enemy .combatants,"

at facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kabul, Afghanistan, and several

locations in Iraq. Only those at Guantanamo have a legal .right to any kind

of trial, where they are offered only "military .tribunals," which are widely

regarded as being show trials, conducted only because they were required by

court decisions.

The foreign nationals who have been released from Guantanamo Bay detention

have told .stories of torture and abuse that are consistent with those that

have .been revealed from Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. administration

.continues to refuse to accept the applicability of the Geneva Conventions,

to which it is signatory, with regards to the legal status of the detainees.

The United States continues to refuse to accept the jurisdiction of the

International Criminal Court and continues to refuse to sign the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

If you publish this, please do not use my name or location. I am one of

those who fled under pressure, and I don't need to add to the pressure I

continue to feel. Thank you.
Name withheld by request"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OK, so just who do YOU think is nuts?

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DISCUSSION
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NEWS DIGEST
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*Costa Rica Formally Rescinds Harken Energy Oil Contract

The Costa Rican government formally canceled the1998 concession for oil

exploration it had granted to Houston-based Harken Energy Corporation (HEC),

after years of wrangling over the deal.

"This marks the end of the administrative process and the definitive

rescission of the contract," said Environment Minister Carlos Manuel

Rodriguez.

President Abel Pacheco said that "what has happened here has nothing to with

us, rather it is due to Harken's failure to comply with several parts of the

contract."

"When they failed to comply, we simply took this measure," Pacheco said.

In 2004, the government backed away from previous plans to pay Harken Energy

a settlement as part of the contract dispute.

Costa Rican officials say that Harken was to blame for failing to present an

adequate environmental impact study on the oil project.

Rodriguez had once said the government was considering a payment of between

US$3 million and US$11 million because it was cheaper than risking a trial in

U.S. courts.

In October 2003, Harken dropped a US$57 billion claim before the World Banks'

International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, but said it would

still pursue compensation.

Harken Costa Rica Holdings won concession rights in 1998 to explore for oil

off the coast of Limon, 100 miles east of the capital, San Jose. But the

Environment Ministry denied a permit to explore there, saying the plan wasn't

" environmentally viable."


*Three Former Presidents Worst Presidential Candidates, Recent Poll Reveals

A poll of 1.205 people by Channel 7 television news, Telenoticias, between

February 15 and 24 shows that 47.5% of the respondents have not made up their

mind on which party they will support in the 2006 presidential elections,

while 19.5% have decided on the Partido Liberación Nacional, (PLN), 9.5% for

the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), 4.5% for the Partido Acción

Ciudadana(PAC). 2.1% for the Movimiento Libertario (ML), 1.5% for others and

15.3 decided not to give an answer.

Asked if they were prepared to vote Oscar Arias in 2006, 54% said no, while

26.7% said yes. The group was also asked if they believed that Arias has the

election locked up, 49.5% said no, while 33.1% believe he will be the next

president.

Asked about various personalities to have made the news this past year, the

group gave an overwhelming support for Fiscal General Francisco Dall’anese,

believing he would make excellent presidential material, while the worst of

the bunch are former presidents, Miguel Angel Rodríguez, followed by José

María Figueres Olsen and Rafael Angel Calderón.


*Recording Will Identify Calls Made From Prisons

A problem for police and jail authorities has been the number of calls made

by prisoners from public pay telephones installed at the prisons to outsiders

who have been threatened and blackmailed.

The situation has gotten so far out of hand that prisoners, working with

those on the outside, were making a good living. And getting away with it.

Basically, a prisoner would use any one of the public telephones installed in

the prison to make calls to extort and/or threaten their potential victims.

The person on the outside would pick up the payment or follow through with

the threat.

The problem was such that police have received more calls of complaints that

they can handle, leaving judicial officials scratching their heads at a

solution.

Well, Patricia Vega, Ministra de Justicia y Gracia, who operates the

penitentiary system and working with the Instituto Costarricense de

Electricidad (ICE), announced that now a recording will precede every phone

call placed from a pay phone in the prisons

The system allows that when you pick up the receiver, if the caller is

calling from a prison, a message is played telling you the call is

originating from a prison and identifying the prison as well.

This change will not stop the criminals from making their calls, but it can

help the receiver of the call by letting them know that they are potential

victim and make a complaint to police.



*Aerial Photos To Help in Property Registration
Next time you are outside, look up and smile. You could be on camera.

Say what?

The government has launched an ambitious program called "Propiedades

inscritas y seguras" by the Regularización de Catastro y Registro, which,

with the help of NASA, will photograph every inch of the national territory,

to avoid mistakes and problems with the land registry.

The first flight began this week with the area of Límon, was confirmed by the

director of the Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología (Cenat), Pedro León, who

says they hope to cover 90% of the national territory by the project's end.

The program will cost us$92 million dollars and is party financed by a loan

from the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID).

The program is strengthen the national registry to avoid and eliminate many

of the problems with the registration process and in the hopes of also

attracting more investment dollars to the country, by having a sound and

solid property registration program.

Many owners and buyers of property have run into problems with title and have

had to spend money and time to correct many of the problems that have gone

unchecked for years. In some cases, property owners have lost part of their

property due to mistakes in the registry.

in other cases, buyers have been left holding the bag when the property they

thought they bought was non-existent or never registered. Problems with the

property registration has been a nightmare for many.

The aerial photos will be used to verify property demarcations of the 1.2

million property registrations and plans on file at the Registro Nacional.

The

The aerial photography part of the program is to take about six weeks to

complete, which is expected to take about 8.500 photos in 66 flights.


*Semana Santa Closing Will Save Government Millions

Public sector employees will be off work between March 20 and March 27 for

the Easter holidays known as "Semana Santa" - Holy Week.

The government announced yesterday that all public insitutions will close at

the end of the day Friday March 19 and re-open Monday March 28.

The 10 day holiday will save the government some ¢600 million colones

(us$1.275.000 dollars)

Banks have not announced their hours for the Semana Santa, as stores and

private businesses.

This year Easter Sunday is March 27, but in Costa Rica as in most of Latin

America, Thursday and Friday during Semana Santa are the holiest of days.


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