Lawyer: Other suspect in DEA killing may go free

FILE - An undated file photo of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, agent, murdered in Mexico in 1985. In the U.S., outrage grew over the surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero’s conviction for the 1985 slaying. Caro Quintero walked free Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in Camarena’s kidnapping, torture and murder. (AP Photo, File)

MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN 19 hours agoSocietyMiguel Ángel Félix GallardoErnesto Fonseca CarrilloMexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Defense attorneys believe freedom is imminent for a second member of the trio of Mexican drug kingpins responsible for the 1985 slaying of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, one of the capo's attorneys said Saturday. In the U.S., outrage grew over this week's surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero's conviction in the notorious killing.

Caro Quintero walked free Friday after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena's kidnapping, torture and murder. The three-judge appeals court in the western state of Jalisco ordered Caro Quintero's immediate release on procedural grounds after 28 years behind bars, saying he should have originally been prosecuted in state instead of federal court.

Also imprisoned in the Camarena case are Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, two of the founding fathers of modern Mexican drug trafficking, whose cartel based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa later split into some of Mexico's largest drug organizations.

Fonseca Carrillo's attorney, Jose Luis Guizar, said his team had filed an appeal based on the same procedural grounds used by Caro Quintero, and expected him to be freed within 15 days by a different court in Jalisco.

"The appeal is about to be resolved. We believe that the judges will stick to the law," Guizar said. "Fonseca Carrillo should already be on the street. He should be at home. At its base, the issue is the same as Rafael's. "

He said he had not spoken to Felix Gallardo's attorneys about their expectations for that case. Mexican officials did not respond to calls seeking comment Saturday.

Camarena's murder escalated tensions between Mexico and the U.S. to perhaps their highest level in recent decades, with the Reagan administration nearly closing the border to exert pressure on a government with deep ties to the drug lords whose cartel operated with near impunity throughout Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it found the Mexican court's decision to free Caro Quintero "deeply troubling," but former DEA agents said they were pessimistic that the Obama administration would bring similar pressure to bear.

Nearly 20 years after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S.-Mexico trade exceeds $1 billion a day. The two countries have worked closely against drug cartels over the last seven years, with the U.S. sending billions in equipment and training in exchange for wide access to Mexican law-enforcement agencies and intelligence.

The U.S. said little last year after Mexican federal police opened fire on a U.S. embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers in one of the most serious attacks on U.S. personnel since the Camarena slaying. Twelve police officers were detained in the case but there is no public evidence that the U.S. or Mexico pursued suspicions that the shooting was a deliberate attack by corrupt police working on behalf of organized crime.

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of complaints about it but do we have a Department of Justice that's going to stand up for this right now? I don't think so," said Edward Heath, who ran the DEA's Mexico office during the Camarena killing. "Everybody's happy, businesswise. Trade is fine, everybody is content."

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, has been restricting U.S. access as part of a broader shift in Mexican law-enforcement strategy from taking down cartel chiefs to reducing daily violence, particularly extortion, kidnapping and homicide. That shift has raised doubts in Washington about Mexico's ongoing commitment to fighting drug trafficking, doubts that grew stronger Saturday after Caro Quintero marked his second full day as a free man, with no public sign of his whereabouts.

The U.S. alleged as recently as June that Caro Quintero continued to run an extensive drug ring from behind bars, working with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs and launder the proceeds through a string of front businesses.

View gallery."

The undated file photo distributed by the Mexican government shows Rafael Caro Quintero, considered …

Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who closely follows Mexican politics, said Pena Nieto's government appeared to have been caught off guard by the decision to free Caro Quintero, but the capo's liberation was nonetheless a blow to relations with Washington.

"We've been asking Mexico to follow the rule of law and I don't know if this exactly the rule of law that they're following," he said. "There should have been some sort of heads up notice that this was going to happen.

"I hope this is not a foreshadowing of what might be coming in from this administration," Cuellar said. "I don't think so but the appearance doesn't look very good right now for U.S.-Mexico relations."

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service, said he had met Friday with members of the Mexico's Interior Department, which oversees most law-enforcement issues.

"They claimed to have been surprised, to have been blindsided by the judicial decision," he said.

Either way, Caro Quintero's release pales in importance next to the detention last month of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, head of the ruthless Zetas cartel, Hope said. The arrest of the man known as Z-40 was publicly praised by President Barack Obama as a sign of Mexico's seriousness about fighting drug cartels.

"Caro Quintero is the past," Hope said. "Z-40 was the clear and present danger."

The Wednesday ruling for Caro Quintero remained secret for two days, the Department of Justice said, with the U.S. learning about it Friday morning about the same time as the news media, hours after Caro Quintero left prison.

"The retired agents that I have spoken to are extremely upset," said Joe Gutensohn, president of the U.S. Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents. "They consider this just another slap in the face for our efforts to stem the drug trade in Mexico."

Mexico's attorney-general said the Jalisco court had "completely ignored" Supreme Court precedent in dismissing the case instead of referring it back to the state courts. Attorney-General Jesus Murillo Karam said he would get involved in the case but offered no specifics.

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Mark Stevenson, Adriana Gomez Licon and Olga R. Rodriguez contributed.

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Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mweissenstein

Netanyahu tells U.S. mediator Palestinians inciting against Israel

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem August 4, 2013. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon/Pool

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has complained to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about statements by the Palestinians which it said undermined nascent peace talks, an Israeli official said on Saturday.

"Incitement and peace cannot coexist," the official quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling Kerry, the negotiations' sponsor, in a letter sent over the weekend.

The complaint underscored the recrimination and distrust on both sides that threaten the talks, even as Israel prepares to free scores of Palestinian prisoners ahead of a second round of discussions next week.

According to the official, Netanyahu's letter referred to an assertion Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made on July 29 that a future Palestinian state "would not see the presence of a single Israeli - civilian or soldier".

Netanyahu also cited an official Palestinian television broadcast of a goodwill visit by the Barcelona football club to the occupied West Bank last week, during which a sportscaster, speaking in voiceover, described Israeli towns and cities as Palestinian - as did a singer who performed on the pitch.

"Rather than educate the next generation of Palestinians to live in peace with Israel, this hate education lays the ground for continued violence, terror and conflict," the letter said.

The U.S. embassy in Israel did not immediately return a call for comment on Netanyahu's letter to Kerry.

The Palestinians have themselves long accused Israel of poor faith in peacemaking, given its expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank which most world powers deem illegal. Netanyahu's rightist coalition government includes pro-settler factions, one of which openly opposes Palestinian statehood.

Asked about Netanyahu's letter, Hanan Ashrawi of Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organisation, dismissed it as "a desperate attempt to distract the world's attention away from their egregious violations of international law".

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

It’s a real pain when you call the doctor’s office and can’t be seen for ten days. Now imagine being told that the wait will be ten years. That’s what immigrants in the United States are facing, particularly immigrant women, as immigration and health care reform laws leave them behind and create a potentially lethal gap between coverage and the people who need it. Organizations like the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health are coming out swinging, arguing that no one should have to wait ten years — or even 15, in some cases — for health care.

Here’s how the current framework of immigration reform would work, as proposed under the bill in Congress: the path to citizenship starts with 10 years of “Registered Provisional Immigrant” status. During that time, immigrants pay taxes, pay fines and otherwise contribute into governmental systems in the United States. One thing they can’t do? Qualify for means-tested healthcare benefits such as Medicare, or receive assistance in the form of tax credits and subsidies to help them access health insurance exchanges.

Once this probationary period is up, immigrants may apply for citizenship and have up to five years to apply for Medicare if they need it. It could potentially take up to 15 years to complete application and enrollment in these programs to access health care in the United States, and this is a very, very long time to wait. Obviously any acute conditions are going to reach the critical point long before patients can see a doctor, and issues like slow-growing tumors and chronic health conditions will have plenty of time to flourish while low-income patients struggle to pull together the money to see a doctor, or wait for benefits eligibility.

While the goal for all immigrants is economic success and wellbeing, such that they could access benefits through employment or be able to buy into health insurance plans, this unfortunately isn’t the case. Immigrants in the United States often work in low-wage jobs for employers who do not offer benefits of any kind, making the social safety net critical for them. Women and children in particular across the United States, regardless of immigration status, are more likely to live in poverty, and that problem is intensified for immigrants.

Lack of access to health care can have serious consequences for patients, exacerbating disabilities and sometimes leading to fatal complications. It’s also bad for the economy, because unhealthy people can’t work as efficiently, and they run the risk of passing on illnesses to others, as well. That’s a bad combination, and one that could be easily addressed by ensuring that all people can access means-tested benefits to ensure that the poorest residents of the country can get the health services they need. After all, immigrants are paying into the system, but they’re not taking anything out of it; effectively, they’re subsidizing low-income U.S. citizens for no return on their investment.

In addition to being an economic and social problem, this is a human rights issue. U.S. hospitals pledge to provide emergency care (including labor and delivery care) to anyone regardless of immigration status and health insurance coverage, but the need for health care doesn’t stop there. Preventative care including management of ongoing chronic health conditions is an important part of a holistic health care system, and it’s an aspect of the current system that’s notably lacking.

For immigrant women, 15 years is too long to wait. The society, communities and families all win when people get the health care they need, when they need it.

Read more: affordable care act, health care, immigrant women, immigration, immigration reform, reproductive justice

Photo credit: Seattle Municipal Archives.

Iraq's uncertain future amid wave of violence

The passenger who sat next to me on the flight to Baghdad was an Iraqi Shia in his late 40s.

We had a few conversations during the flight. Hayder, who had been living in the UK for years, was going to see his family back in Iraq.

We went through immigration and reached the arrivals hall, where his brother was waiting for him. "Where is Ali?" Hayder asked about his younger brother, and the other man burst into tears.

"He was killed in a car bomb last week and we didn't want to tell you until you got here."

I left the two men hugging each other in their grief.

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You have to consider the scale of the security challenge that we are facing”

Brig-Gen Saad MaanInterior Ministry spokesman

Iraq seems to be heading towards civil war once more. Ali was one of the 1,000 Iraqis killed in the month of July, making it one of the worst months in years. More than 4,000 Iraqis have lost their lives this year in acts of violence.

Al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni extremist organization, is responsible for most of the bombings. Their targets are mainly Shia neighbourhoods across Iraq.

I went to some of those areas to talk to the people.

'Region is boiling'

Shias do not blame the whole Sunni community for what is happening.

Om Zeinab, a head teacher, said that Iraqis should not react in a way that serves al-Qaeda's goal of inciting another wave of sectarian killing of the scale the country experienced in 2006 and 2007.

A one-million-strong security force has failed to protect civilians

I had to go through many security checkpoints to reach central Baghdad. Soldiers and policemen are everywhere. Iraq has about one million security personnel, but they are still unable to control the security situation.

The Shias, for so long oppressed by Saddam Hussein's secular but Sunni-dominated regime, are in charge now. They control the security forces and the army.

I asked interior ministry spokesman Brig-Gen Saad Maan why the government was failing to providing security, given all its resources.

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“Start Quote

There is no happiness in Iraq”

Baghdad taxi driver

"I do not agree with you in calling it failure," he said.

"You have to consider the scale of the security challenge that we are facing. Not only Iraq, the whole Middle East region is boiling.

"We might be high in numbers but Iraq is a big country. We are doing our jobs, chasing terrorists and bringing them to justice."

But government security efforts were hit with a major blow last month when militants raided the biggest prison in the country, Abu Ghraib. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dozens of fighters stormed the highly fortified facility and freed 500 inmates, including many senior al-Qaeda members.

Exploiting grievances

There have been bombings in Sunni areas as well recently. No-one is claiming responsibility for such attacks.

Iraq's Sunnis say the Shia-led government is ignoring attacks against them

But Sunnis accuse the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, of turning a blind eye, if not supporting, the activities of Shia militias.

For months, members of the Sunni minority have been protesting against Mr Maliki, accusing him of discrimination against them.

I could not go to the Sunni heartland in western Iraq - the government is blocking access to journalists, especially those who are from the international media.

I went instead to Adhamiaya, a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad.

Sheikh Mustafa al-Bayati, a Sunni cleric and protest leader told me that the demonstrations were not motivated by sectarianism.

Continue reading the main story

Al-Qaeda in Iraq

• Jihadist movement forms in 2003 in opposition to US-led invasion
• Leaders declare allegiance to Osama Bin Laden's network in October 2004
• Group kills and injures thousands of Iraqis and foreigners in 10 years of fighting; helps spread sectarian conflict
• Group leaders announce in April 2013 they have merged with Syria's Nusra Front; now called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
• Nusra Front sought to distance themselves from merger; extent of ties between the groups is unclear

"We did not rise against the Shia. We have lived with them for centuries. We rose against the government which puts our men in prison unfairly and abuses our human rights. That should stop.

"We will either live in dignity or die in dignity," he said.

Not so long ago the Sunni community turned against al-Qaeda. Today the extremist group is trying to exploit current grievances.

During the height of the sectarian violence many Sunni areas became no-go zones for Shias and vice-versa.

The situation subsequently improved and plenty of neighbourhoods are mixed again. But people are worried about what the future holds for their country, which has lacked stability for so long.

When you talk to people, you have a sense that they want to live together. They still believe that the Iraqi identity should supersede the sectarian.

On my way back to the airport my taxi driver was a 30-year-old Sunni man. He told me about his dream of leaving Iraq.

"Iraq is a rich country but we do not see that. I want to go to live in a better place - Europe or America or anywhere."

He then put a CD in the car stereo and started listening. All the songs were sad. As we approached the airport, he gazed longingly at a plane taking off.

"There is no happiness in Iraq. I never felt it."