[narconews] Giordano: Colombia Regime Approaches Pariah Status in Washington
 
Resent-Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 11:21:23 -0500 (CDT)


April 8, 2008 Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

The embattled US-Colombia free trade agreement met yet another
setback in the US political scene after Mark Penn, Senator Hillary
Clintons chief presidential campaign adviser, announced he would
be stepping down. This, after The Wall Street Journal reported of
Penns dual role as lobbyist for the Colombian government and a
meeting he held last week with its ambassador to strategize for
passage of the trade pact.

Publisher Al Giordano, recently returned to Narco News after covering
the US presidential race for nine months, reports on the Bush
Administrations last desperate moves to save the trade agreement
as Congressional Democrats are finding Colombias serial violations
of human rights and assassinations of trade unionists to be a
political liability in this election year:

Penn, facing the increased public and press scrutiny that political
consultants, lobbyists and registered foreign agents seek intensely
to avoid (Penn represents many controversial clients, from Blackwaters
the private security forces in Iraq to the makers of poisonous
Chinese toys imported to the US), offered up his own resignation
as Clintons campaign chief on Sunday.

By Monday morning (today), the oft-ignored matter of the proposed
US-Colombia free trade agreement was  finally  part of the lead
story on network news programs: NBCs Today, ABCs Good Morning America
and CBSs Early Show, as well as MSNBCs Morning Joe.

Sensing the public relations meltdown, US President George Bush
took to the airwaves with a live televised speech on Monday morning,
trying to stem the bleeding, and invoking national security as his
last-ditch argument to get the unpopular trade agreement with
Colombia approved by Congress.

Read the rest of Giordanos report online at Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

From somewhere in a country called Amirica,

David B. Briones Webmaster The Narco News Bulletin http://www.narconews.com
webmaster@narconews.com

Narco News is supported by:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism P.O. Box 241 Natick, MA 01760
http://www.authenticjournalism.org

The Fund receives online donations at this web page:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org

Apply for your co-publisher's account, here:

http://www.narconews.com/copublisher/application.php

Subscribe for free alerts of new reports:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews

Suscribete gratis para alertas de nuevos reportajes en espanol:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsandes

Inscreva-se para alertas gratuitos de reportagens do ultimo minuto
em portugues brasileiro:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsbrasil