May 31, 2010

Jamaica's violence part of American plot to kill black people!

The Rev. Mervin Stoddart, a Jamaica-born racial agitator living in Florida, runs off at the mouth in yet another of his anti-American newspaper columns -- one that certainly won't resonate among the overwhelming majority of all those 'salt of the earth' middle-class Jamaicans that I know. Have any U.S. officials ever thought to look at Stoddart's immigration status to see if he can be deported back to Jamaica?



By David Paulin

What was the real cause of Jamaica's recent violence -- the firebombing of police stations by drug thugs and pitched battles with security forces attempting to serve a U.S. extradition warrant on alleged drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke?

It was all part of an American-hatched plot to kill black people!

That's according to a newspaper columnist writing in the Jamaica Observer, a popular left-leaning daily paper in Kingston, the capital. Jamaica-born columnist Mervin Stoddart, a Florida resident, claims that Dudus "is a fall guy and the media hype surrounding his story is a smokescreen."

The self-described minister explains:

Numerous forces inimical to Jamaica show up in the Dudus saga. Conscious Jamaicans must consider the New World Order implications. Perhaps U.S. destabilization of Jamaica seems like child's play to Washington because Jamaicans worship President Barack Obama. Blessed Jamaica is perennially envied by "brute beast" (2 Peter 2:12) Euro-Americans, who recently got whipped in international sports by Jamaicans. Chaos created in Jamaica and other countries by evil globalists offers distraction from their own problems. There are dangerous insurgencies raging in the US, especially in the Tea Party Movement, with signs of impending civil war.

For some 6000 years, earth's evil Caucasians have been decimating people of color. Their drug war, terror war and killings of Iraqis, Afghans, and practically all predominantly black nationals on earth are key pieces of their population reduction plan, as exposed by Jim Marrs in The Fourth Reich. Their endgame is in place whereby globalists are ready to decimate their own race to get rid of people who do not share their racist, globalist, satanic views. Some people, like Jamaicans, reject this evil globalism because it offends their faith in God, but many branches of Christianity are leaders in this march to the white supremacist one-world government. Jamaicans must use the spirit of discernment to identify those churches that are Satan's servants, especially churches headquartered in Euro-America.

He concludes:

Every Jamaican at home and abroad must analyze the Dudus tragedy and work for deliverance, but no one should excuse the real enemies of Jamaica.

The Jamaica Observer, incidentally, is owned by Gordon "Butch Stewart (click here for photo) who owns the all-inclusive Sandals and Beaches resorts that are popular among well-to-do white Americans. Most Jamaicans are of African heritage, but Stewart is one of a handful of Jamaicans who is known to his countrymen as a "white Jamaican."

On occasion, the politically well-connected businessman hosts prominent Democrats from the U.S., including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. The wacky major spent what one newspaper called a "little post-Katrina rest and relaxation" at Stewart's villa in Negril. There was no word in that article as to whether Stewart's columnist, Mervin Stoddart, joined in the fun.

(Main body of this article was originally published at the American Thinker blog.)

For more on anti-Americanism in Jamaica's among its leftist elites, see my piece in the Washington Times, "Answering Anti-Americanism."






May 26, 2010

Jamaica: The Good, the Bad, and the 'Dudus'





By David Paulin



Questions and answers about Jamaica's State of Emergency, its gang culture, and the events leading up to the search by security forces for alleged drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke.











Q: How would you characterize the nature of the ties between the Jamaica Labor Party and Christopher "Dudus" Coke?


A: To understand the nature of the ties between the Jamaica Labor Party and Coke, you need to understand three things. First, consider some geography. Coke is based in West Kingston, a critical constituency of the right-leaning Jamaica Labor Party or “JLP” dating to the early 1960s. It's one of Jamaica's so-called "garrison communities" -- areas of Kingston's metropolitan area aligned to one of the country's two main political parties. The opposition party is the left-leaning People's National Party or “PNP.” Second, West Kingston is represented in Parliament by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, a seat he accepted (for better and worse) after becoming head of of the JLP in 2005. It's an area that enabled him to be opposition leader and that served as his springboard to be prime minister in 2007. Third, the Tivoli Gardens area of West Kingston is the stronghold for Christopher "Dudus" Coke, where he allegedly operates an international drug and arms-smuggling organization called the "Shower Posse." Tivoli Gardens is now the focus of bloody assaults by security forces attempting to arrest Coke. As of Tuesday afternoon, dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries had been reported.

Q: So what is the precise relationship that Coke has with the JLP and Bruce Golding?


A: It's a complex symbiotic relationship -- a loose one, so to speak -- whose roots date to Jamaica's independence and to what's called the "political tribalism" that emerged during the early years after independence; a period during which politicians utilized gangs to help sway elections. Since then, those gangs have become self-sufficient and are no longer beholden to the politicians as they had been. In other words, the politicians are no longer riding the tiger (as many Jamaicans note); it's the tiger that's riding the politicians.

This symbiotic relationship has existed for years between politicians and strongmen like Coke (or “Dons” as Jamaicans call them). It amounts to a power-sharing arrangement. Coke, for instance, serves some important roles for the JLP and Golding. Like other Dons with ties to the two main political parties, he fills a power vacuum created by a weak government. Coke also maintains "order" in West Kingston. He provides ad hoc social services such as handouts of food, and he provides jobs through government contracts he distributes – all financed through his legitimate business or from his alleged drug and arms-smuggling profits. And during elections, Coke keeps his political bargain: He maintains political conformity and ensures that West Kingston votes for the JLP -- a task that has often resulted in political violence over the years. Reportedly, Coke gave a "green light" for Golding to accept the West Kingston seat in Parliament in 2005, a seat previously occupied by Edward Seaga. As one newspaper article in Jamaica put it: Golding may represent West Kingston, but Coke runs the place. All in all, it's a Faustian bargain.

It's a matter of conjecture about how close Jamaica's politicians are to the alleged illegal activities carried out by men like Coke. Do they merely look the other way for political expediency? No doubt, they do, and so do the police; otherwise, the "garrison communities" would not exist. Do politicians share profits from the drug trade? That's a matter of conjecture. However, Jamaicans can't help but think the worst when they see prominent politicians and officials hanging out with some Dons and attending gaudy funerals for slain Dons -- spectacles that Jamaica's public-spirited news media have covered in detail and sharply criticized. Ordinary middle-class Jamaicans have been left disillusioned and angry. But their frequent calls for political leaders to "dismantle the garrisons" falls on deaf ears.

Q: What is the "Manatt Affair" and how did it affect Golding’s decision to sign off on Coke’s extradition? Besides Manatt, what else might have prompted Golding to change his mind about extraditing Coke after a 9-month long extradition standoff with Washington?

A: On May 17, Prime Minister Bruce Golding surprised Jamaicans with a repentant television address -- apologizing for the two-month long "Manatt Affair" and pledging to extradite alleged drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke. So what was Manatt? Two months earlier, Jamaica's Parliament erupted in the first of many heated sessions over revelations that the prestigious U.S. law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips was paid $49,000 to lobby Washington not to extradite Coke; the fee was part of an original $400,000 contract. Prime Minister Golding lost credibility over the scandal, for it weakened his claim that his administration was delaying the extradition request due to concerns that the Americans had violated Coke's "constitutional rights" with illegal wiretaps and unnamed informants.

In one Parliamentary session after another, the opposition PNP hammered Golding for failing to fully reveal the precise relationship with Manatt; or as one newspaper put it: "to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Jamaicans are cynical about their politicians, and so many doubted that Golding's position on Coke's extradition was really all about the alleged drug lord's "constitutional rights" -- and whether the American's had violated them. Golding also lost credibility as his stories about Manatt changed while in the PNP's spotlight. Eventually, he stated that the contacts with Manatt were initiated through the JLP at his orders, although a taciturn Manatt spokesman said the contacts were from Jamaica's government. The opposition PNP -- which ironically has its own Dons and for years tolerated Coke and other Tivoli strongmen -- called for Golding's resignation.

The episode provided yet more evidence to law-abiding and ordinary Jamaicans that Prime Minister Golding has not tackled Jamaica's deepest pathology -- its garrison communities -- since becoming prime minister in 2007. His high-minded claims about Coke's "constitutional rights" had less credibility. Ultimately, the issue of good governance -- or lack of it -- was at the center of the "Manatt Affair."

Did Manatt alone cause Golding's government to do an about-face about extraditing Coke? Certainly, it's a decision that tormented Golding, for he surely foresaw much of what would happen: protests among West Kingston's poor residents (a critical constituency) who are loyal to Coke; and the orgy of deadly violence now taking place as security forces removed road blocks set up in poor neighborhoods, and then began to battle gunmen loyal to Coke as they set out to find and arrest him.

In explaining Golding's about-face over the extradition request, there is much to suggest that top officials in the Obama administration started taking a hard line against the Golding administration, although the details of what took place have yet to be revealed or confirmed. However, according to one Associated Press report (which U.S. officials would not confirm), top officials in Golding's government had their U.S. visas canceled. A Jamaica newspaper, relying on unnamed sources (presumably American or Jamaican officials in the know), told of U.S. satellite photos showing important Jamaican officials visiting Coke's stronghold; and it was reported in the same article that some affluent Jamaicans were being stopped while visiting the U.S. and grilled about the sources of their wealth. At one point, Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton even made a fleeting visit to Jamaica, meeting with Golding at the airport serving Kingston.

From all appearances, then, the Obama administration abandoned its notions that it could break the extradition standoff by relying on two cornerstones of its original foreign policy: "mutual respect" and "honest engagement." Instead, it cranked up the pressure on Jamaica by playing hardball -- Realpolitik.

Q: In your article at the American Thinker, you mentioned the anti-Americanism of elite, left-leaning Jamaicans. It seems that this anti-Americanism, in some sense, puts left-leaning elites on the same side as Tivoli Gardens residents who oppose Coke’s extradition. How do these two groups regard each other? As allies in the fight to prevent extradition, or as snobs and thugs, respectively?

A: Some of Jamaica's leftist elites were simply reacting with their usual knee-jerk anti-Americanism by criticizing the United States as being a bully or imperialist in the extradition standoff. It's hard to imagine that these educated anti-American elites would have much in common with poor residents in Tivoli Gardens, who probably would jump at the chance to immigrate to the United States if they could get a U.S. visa. (If you doubt that, go to the U.S. Embassy in Kingston and take a look at the line some day.)

While Coke and his gunmen could be called thugs, the residents of Tivoli Gardens could not be described that way. However, many middle-class Jamaicans say they are trapped in a culture of poverty and dependence – all of which is exploited by “Dons” like Coke who provide them with an ad hoc welfare state. It's a symbiotic union all its own. Regarding the values of this underclass, women typically start having children at an early age. Young boys view the Dons as the sorts of men they want to become. Many members of this underclass lack the social skills needed to enter the middle-class.

Q: If Coke is arrested and does time in the U.S., will this have any noticeable effect on the drug trade in Jamaica? Is there any policy the U.S. could pursue that could realistically make a dent in the Caribbean drug trade?

A: If Coke is arrested and goes to the U.S. to stand trial, there is always the possibility he could implicate fellow drug traffickers, not to mention corrupt businessman, politicians, and others involved in the drug trade. No drug kingpin has ever been arrested in Jamiaca, a fact the U.S. State Department recently noted in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. However, Coke needs to get to the U.S. before this can happen. In 1992, his father, Lester Lloyd Coke -- or Jim Brown as he was known -- was West Kingston's "Don" and a JLP loyalist. Days before he was to be extradited to the U.S. on murder and drug trafficking charges, Brown died when a mysterious fire engulfed his maximum security jail cell.

Golding, for his part, could obtain political redemption by doing what law-abiding Jamaicans have for years been clamoring for -- dismantling the garrison communities, the "monsters" as they call them, over which politicians have lost control since they created them. That would surely put a dent in the drug trade, and it would make Jamaica a better society than it had been. Increasingly, though, it appears that Golding will have much work to do if reports out of Jamaica are accurate: that gunmen hired by Coke -- and associated with some of the opposition People's National Party's Dons -- have joined forces with Coke's gunmen to to battle the police. It appears that much blood will still be shed, with dozens killed and hundreds wounded by Tuesday afternoon.

Q: You mentioned in your American Thinker article that although other English-speaking, Caribbean nations share a similar past with Jamaica, none has the same level of drug and gang related violence. If not history, then what may have caused Jamaica’s thug problem?


A: Jamaica's left-leaning elites are fond of blaming Jamaica's pathologies on their country's legacies of slavery and colonialism. And although I didn't note it in my article, they also blame Jamaica's problems on what they regard as a rigged international system in which the U.S. has gamed the economic playing playing field for its own benefit. Yet countries like The Bahamas also have histories of colonialism and slavery, and yet they have none of Jamaica's pathologies. There is no Bahamian Diaspora comparable to the Jamaican Diaspora. Indeed, The Bahamas has none of Jamaica's political violence; none of its anti-Americanism among its political class; none of the economic troubles; and none of the cultural problems such as thuggish Dance Hall music. Why is Jamaica so different? The reason has everything with decisions that Jamaica's political leaders took-- or didn't take -- years ago when the country started on the course that it did.
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May 21, 2010

Obama's lesson in Realpolitik



By David Paulin


Obama's foreign policy bumblers are getting a lesson in realpolitik in an extradition standoff with Jamaica -- which may not be the best place for a Caribbean vacation right now. Kingston, the capital, is on a "knife's edge" of tension, report Jamaica's media outlets. Residents are braced for civil unrest. Security forces are out in force.

Jamaica's leftist elites, for their part, have gone into an anti-American frenzy not seen since President Bush's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The epicenter of the gathering storm is Kingston's gritty Tivoli Gardens area -- longtime home to an alleged drug lord and arms trafficker named Christopher Michael Coke, 41, who is wanted by U.S. authorities. There, in what some call a "state within a state," Coke and his gunmen have for years operated with minimum harassment from the police -- thanks to loose ties with political leaders and fierce loyalties they've cultivated with poor residents.

Now, anticipating a raid by security forces, Coke and his gunmen have reportedly thrown up barricades booby trapped with gasoline-filled canisters, barbed wire, and live electrical wires. They're heavily armed -- ready for a flight as police attempt to serve an arrest warrant on Coke. Backed up by his gunmen, Coke has ruled this section of West Kingston for years, serving as a "community leader" by providing an ad hoc if not thuggish government for poor residents.

The showdown comes after Jamaica on Monday finally signed a extradition request from the United States for Coke -- after stonewalling the Obama administration for months and voicing concerns over Coke's "constitutional rights." As an American Thinker article reported last March, Jamaica's political leaders claimed American law enforcement authorities had violated Coke's rights with wiretaps and the use of unnamed witnesses -- all cited in an indictment unsealed last August by the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. However, the more likely reason for the extradition standoff was that Jamaica's political leaders were protecting Coke. They had much to lose by extraditing him.

Known as "Dudus" to Jamaicans, Coke has for years been the alleged leader of Jamaica's "Shower Posse," which has distributed crack, cocaine, and marijuana in New York City and elsewhere while smuggling weapons back to Kingston. No doubt, a disproportionate number of the victims of Coke's drug trafficking and violence have been poor and black Americans. Coke is one of the world's "most dangerous narcotics kingpins," say U.S. officials.

For the rest of the article, go to The American Thinker.


For more coverage of Jamaica's State of Emergency (which major media outlets are not covering in depth) go to the websites of Jamaica's two major newspapers:
jamaicaobserver.com and jamaica-gleaner.com.


UPDATE - 1


Travel Alert
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
This information is current as of today, Sat May 22 2010 07:21:54 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time).

Jamaica
May 21, 2010
The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens about developing security concerns in Jamaica, particularly the Kingston area. The possibility exists for violence and/or civil unrest in the greater Kingston metropolitan area. There are unconfirmed reports of criminal gang members amassing in the Kingston area, as well as mobilization of Jamaican defense forces. If the situation ignites, there is a possibility of severe disruptions of movement within Kingston, including blocking of access roads to the Norman Manley International Airport. The possibility exists that unrest could spread beyond the general Kingston area. U.S. Embassy Kingston is taking extra security precautions. This Travel Alert expires on June 21, 2010.

U.S citizens should consider the risks associated with travel to and within the greater Kingston metropolitan area. U.S. citizens are urged always to practice good security, maintain a heightened situational awareness and a low profile. U.S. citizens in Jamaica are advised to monitor local news reports and consider the level of security present when venturing outside their residence or hotel.

UPDATE - 2


Sunday, May 23, 2010

JAMAICA DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY


May 5, 2010

What Caused the Times Square Bomber to 'Snap'? (It's the jihad, dummy!)


By David Paulin

What motivated Faisal Shahzad to attempt to explode a car bomb in Times Square? Might it have anything to do with radial Islam, jihad, and anti-Western hatred?

Nope. Not according to may media outlets and pundits. And no matter that Shazhzad quickly admitted to getting explosives training in Pakistan or that his car bomb was "payback" for the deaths of Taliban leaders in U.S. done attacks.

Consider a story in today's Connecticut Post, a Bridgeport-based newspaper that's one of the state's largest dailies. It provides
fascinating insights on what set off Shahzad -- insights that come from James Monahan, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven.

"Maybe he (Shahzad) was the runt of the litter; the child who couldn't meet his parents' expectations," Monahan told the paper.

"Maybe he was starting to see the hopes of living the good life in America die and he began feeling like a failure," the professor speculates at another point. "Maybe he wanted the satisfaction of going out with a bang."

And what about jihad? Or radical Islam? Or Islamic-inspired terrorism? The Connecticut Post dares not mentions such words. Not once. Turning to Professor Monahan for sage advice, it only says, "The professor suggests that maybe Shahzad fell into the wrong crowd, who turned his American failure into anger against America."

The professor adds: "They need to be grilling him in an attempt to determine his connections and his associations to radical groups. His wife is someone who they should want to talk to."

Gosh. What a good idea: Talk to his wife! And I wonder what kinds of "radical groups" the professor might be referring to?

Unfortunately, the Connecticut Post's reporting is par for the course in respect to much of the media's coverage of Faisal Shahzad -- something Mary Katharine Ham observes in a Weekly Standard piece on the "dumbest theories on the Times Square Bomber."

Here's a parting thought: If the Times Square Bomber had been a Christian right-wing white guy who went to Tea Parties and opposed ObamaCare, would the media be treating him with the kid gloves they are using in their politically correct coverage of Shahzad?