FrankSmyth.com

Will Justice Be Possible In Guatemala?

Frank Smyth — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:08:13 +0000

These three presidents have stories that are tightly interwoven. Much like the threads of an olive green military dress uniform, pulling too hard, now, at any one loose string, could start unraveling the fabric to eventually bare what lies beneath.

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For NRA’s new president, not his father’s gun club

Frank Smyth — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:43:07 +0000

James W. Porter, Jr. assumed the unpaid, but politically important post of president of the National Rifle Association Monday. While the role puts the Birmingham, Ala., attorney for the first time on a national stage, he is hardly an unknown within the gun lobby. Nearly 20 years ago, I observed Jim Porter in action behind closed doors at

Fresh off victory, NRA looks toward 2014

Frank Smyth — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:49:32 +0000

Fresh from its biggest legislative victory in years, the gun lobby is gearing up for its next project: backing their congressional champions in the 2014 midterm elections. But this time the landscape will be different. At least one, if not more, gun reform groups are promising to spend millions of dollars challenging those incumbents who

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How the gun lobby has already blocked Boston’s bombing investigators

Frank Smyth — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:19:57 +0000

One avenue of investigation is already closed off to forensic officials working the Boston Marathon bombing case due to efforts dating back decades by the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers. The FBI said Tuesday that gunpowder, along with pieces of metal and ball bearings, were packed into at least one pressure cooker and another

Gun lobby helps block US from signing UN arms treaty

Frank Smyth — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:21:44 +0000

Senators passed an amendment to block the Obama administration from signing any future U.N. Arms Trade Treaty in a 53-to-46 vote early Saturday morning before dawn. The measure, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., was one of dozens passed as part of an all-night “vote-a-rama” that led to the first national economic budget passed by

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Gun Control and Genocide

Frank Smyth — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:12:55 +0000

Here’s why the NRA is dead wrong about gun control causing genocide. But at least they agree with human rights groups about the horrors of the military dictatorship in Guatemala. What does America’s gun lobby have to do with the question of genocide in Guatemala?

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Why it’s so hard to keep guns out of abusive households

Frank Smyth — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:25:58 +0000

Richard D’Alauro is the National Rifle Association’s field representative in New York City and surrounding suburbs, and he kept dozens of different firearms of all kinds at his Long Island home. But in 2010, after he was charged in a domestic violence dispute...

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Sequester trumps Sandy Hook: Why gun-control measures may falter

Frank Smyth — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:07:37 +0000

Many Americans expected a real change in the nation’s gun laws after the killing of 20 first-graders in Newtown. But three months later, the outcome looks unclear. No fewer than four pieces of legislation have passed a Senate panel over the past two weeks to move to the Senate floor. “It’s a step forward,” Debra

Glenn Beck returns to the NRA as group strengthens ties with gun manufacturers

Frank Smyth — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:55:54 +0000

Any remaining doubt about where the gun lobby may be headed after the Newtown Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting seems over now. NRA leaders have endorsed America’s most profitable gunmaking CEO...

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Senate witness on weapons ban funded by gun lobby

Frank Smyth — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:44:48 +0000

At the same time that the gun lobby is helping to fuel threatening language on the Internet, it is trying to keep secret its financial backing for key witnesses testifying about gun violence before the Senate Judiciary Committee...

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Do news blackouts help journalists held captive?

Frank Smyth — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:55:23 +0000

At any given time over the past two years, as wars raged in Libya and then Syria, and as other conflicts ground on in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, a number of journalists have been held captive...

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Introducing the NRA kingmakers

Frank Smyth — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:31:34 +0000

The rites of spring rarely change. Every year, even before the season opens for wild turkey shooting, hunters begin sighting-in their shotguns in the field. And just like the beginning of the hunting season, every spring, members...

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The gun at the heart of the assault weapons debate

Frank Smyth — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:46:30 +0000

The firearm at the heart of the “assault weapons” debate is a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used last month in the Newtown, Conn. The NRA maintains it is good for hunting and home defense...

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What the Judiciary Committee Should Ask Wayne LaPierre

Frank Smyth — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:56:17 +0000

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on gun violence featuring testimony from the NRA's Wayne LaPierre, as well as Mark Kelly, the husband of former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, who was shot in the head while holding a public meeting in her district two years ago.

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How the NRA became the fringe

Frank Smyth — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:37:52 +0000

Today's NRA's interpretation of the Second Amendment seems to put it to the right of not only most Americans, including most gun owners, but also the Roberts Supreme Court and even Justice Antonin Scalia...

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EXCLUSIVE: Unmasking the NRA’s Inner Circle

Frank Smyth — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:04:23 +0000

The NRA operates more like a corporation or politburo than a typical nonprofit or lobbying organization. Its shadowy leaders include the CEO who sells Bushmaster assault rifles used in the Newtown tragedy, and a top director who lives a few miles from Newtown's...

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Even Court-Approved Extraditions Have a Troubled, Bloody History in Guatemala

Frank Smyth — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:47:08 +0000

The last time Guatemala extradited one of its own drug lords was nearly 20 years ago. And the complications faced by US agencies back then have continued to plague US efforts through six administrations led by four...

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Solidarity, a key to security, eludes Salvadoran press

Frank Smyth — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:16:59 +0000

The original blog is posted here. By Frank Smyth/Senior Adviser for Journalist Security No other journalists are remembered quite like this. Visitors looking through the glass display at the Monsignor Romero Center & Martyrs Museum in San Salvador see the pajamas and other clothes that three Jesuit university priests were wearing when they were shot down by automatic

Caveat utilitor: Satellite phones can always be tracked

Frank Smyth — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:05:42 +0000

The Telegraph in London was the first to report that Syrian government forces could have "locked on" to satellite phone signals to launch the rocket attacks that killed journalists Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik...

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Guatemala’s Cycles of Crime

Frank Smyth — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:06:52 +0000

For Guatemala and its majority Mayan population time is repeating itself. A former military commander and intelligence chief with a bloody past promises to bring law and order to the Central American nation. Worried about rising crime and the increasingly violent penetration by Mexican drug cartels, voters elected Otto Pérez Molina...

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Journalist security: An evolving field

Frank Smyth — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:10:28 +0000

The garden city between the mountains and the sea founded by Vikings in 871 cast an historic hue over the discussion. Journalists from nearly every continent gathered this past weekend to discuss journalist security issues in a hotel in Tønsberg, Norway, outside of which a replica of a Viking ship was being constructed.

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Murdering with Impunity: The Rise in Terror Tactics Against News Reporters

Frank Smyth — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:02:31 +0000

More journalists were killed last year than ever before. No doubt the world has become a more dangerous...

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In U.S., Dangerous Misconceptions from TSA Poster

Frank Smyth — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:31:46 +0000

Back in 2004, Iraqi gunmen loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr abducted U.S. freelance photographer Paul Taggert because, as they later told The Associated Press, they thought he was a spy. Now, a new poster from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration reinforces dangerous...

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Coming soon…

Webmaster — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 03:13:48 +0000

The latest version of FrankSmyth.com went up in October 2010. The Secret Documents section is taking longer to put up than expected. But it will eventually list documents obtained by Frank in the course of investigating stories and others such as the private, Washington, D.C.-based National Security Archive with full attribution in every case. The documents

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Thomas Long

Frank Smyth — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:09:17 +0000

Thomas Long has been a photojournalist, correspondent, editor, documentary producer and analyst for diverse media over three decades.

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Neill Le Roux

Frank Smyth — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:33:33 +0000

Neill Le Roux is an art, model, event and news photographer based in South Africa.

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Scott Wallace

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:37:08 +0000

Scott Wallace's assignments have taken him from the remotest corners of the Amazon to the clandestine arms markets of Russia, from the North Slope of Alaska to the sweltering rice paddies of southern Bangladesh.

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Kevin McKiernan

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:50:30 +0000

Kevin McKiernan's career as a journalist and filmmaker has taken him to some of the world's most troubled regions, from Nicaragua to Iraq to West Africa.

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Hector Emanuel

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:30:19 +0000

Hector Emanuel is a Peruvian-born photojournalist with a Master's degree in physics. His photos focus mainly on social and political issues in Latin America and the United States.

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Jonathan Moller

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:29:33 +0000

"Each moment captured by Jonathan Moller’s camera...sets an example for future generations, so that they may know the past, which is filled with darkness but also contains hope, struggle and optimism." Rigoberta Menchú Tum

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Bill Gentile

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:50:14 +0000

"I began my career in the golden days of journalism when the craft still was about information as opposed to entertainment, and when the men and women who practiced the craft believed that information can make a difference."

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Zoriah Miller

Frank Smyth — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:32:21 +0000

Zoriah is an award-winning photojournalist whose work has been featured in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, museums and publications.

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David Handschuh

Frank Smyth — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:39:18 +0000

A three time Pulitzer nominee, David Handschuh has been working his magic behind the lens for more than 30 years.

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Drew Brown

Frank Smyth — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:40:22 +0000

Drew Brown, a former U.S. airborne infantryman, has covered military affairs almost exclusively for more than a decade.

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Eros Hoagland

Frank Smyth — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:21:53 +0000

As well as documenting the political climate and social impact of conflict, Eros looks for an emotional narrative when approaching reportage projects.

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Dan Connell

Frank Smyth — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:51:00 +0000

Dan Connell is a world-renown expert on the Horn of Africa, and especially Eritrea, where spent many years reporting.

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Mick Stern

Frank Smyth — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:42:39 +0000

Mick Stern is an accomplished poet, political cartoonist, playwrite and screenplay writer who co-write with Director Lenn Dell'Amico the 2009 film, "Everything Must Go."

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Donna De Cesare

Frank Smyth — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:18:52 +0000

Donna DeCesare is widely known for her groundbreaking coverage of the spread of Los Angeles gangs to Central America.

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Corinne Dufka

Webmaster — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:37:10 +0000

Dufka, now a Human Rights Watch senior researcher, was an award-winning photojournalist for the Reuters news agency, covering conflicts in Central America, Europe and Africa.

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Martin Lueders

Webmaster — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:26:25 +0000

"Marty focuses on people --victims-- from Bosnia to Rwanda, from Guatemala to India, from Liberia to Sierra Leone. The scenes are painfully intimate." FS

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Jeremy Bigwood

Webmaster — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:18:15 +0000

Jeremy Bigwood is a frequently quoted investigative journalist, as well as a photojournalist whose images from the Central America wars from 1984 through 1994 were published worldwide.

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Jean-Marie Simon

Webmaster — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:16:27 +0000

"Jean-Marie Simon's Guatemala is a country in which history, cultural diversity, exotic beauty and cruelty are reflected on the faces of its Indian peasants, its soliders, its politicians, its protesters and its mourners." Aryeh Neier

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Jammeh ‘Award’ Coverage Reflects Chill in Gambian Press

Frank Smyth — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:35:52 +0000

The claims are false. Regarding "your query asking for confirmation of Gambian reporting on the Gambian president receiving awards and a letter from President Obama," White House National Security Council...

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Hollman Morris, Labeled ‘Terrorist,’ Finally Harvard-bound

Frank Smyth — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:37:40 +0000

For a month, U.S. officials in Bogotá told Colombian journalist Hollman Morris that his request for a U.S. visa to study at Harvard as a prestigious Nieman Fellow had been denied on grounds relating to terrorist activities as defined by the U.S. Patriot Act, and that the decision was permanent and that there were no grounds for appeal.

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Global Media Forum Cites Risks of Environmental Reporting

Frank Smyth — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:58:27 +0000

He's young, unemployed and carries himself with the innocence of a man who hasn't spent much time outside his own village. But Egyptian blogger Tamer Mabrouk is the real deal. Appearing at an international media conference in Bonn, Mabrouk's description of chemical dumping into a brackish lagoon...

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‘Crude’ Filmmaker’s Raw Footage Subject to Subpoena

Frank Smyth — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:44:54 +0000

A filmmaker’s raw footage is much like a photographer’s unedited images or a reporter’s notebooks—a private record of their reporting that is rarely disclosed to others. On Thursday, a federal judge in New York ruled...

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Painting the Maya Red: Military Doctrine and Speech in Guatemala’s Genocidal Acts

Frank Smyth — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:29:17 +0000

The bloodshed woven through the fabric of Guatemalan society remains a rarely told story. One reason for the ongoing lack of attention is the impunity that has long...

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FOIA Needs New Muscle Behind It, Not Just Promises

Frank Smyth — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:03:02 +0000

These are busy days for Freedom of Information. On April 5, the watchdog Web site that knows no borders, WikiLeaks, posted a classified U.S. military video showing U.S. forces firing on Iraqi civilians, killing many, including two Reuters journalists, as well as wounding children. Two days later, the Pentagon posted a redacted U.S. military assessment...

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El Salvador’s Cold War Martyrs

Frank Smyth — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:13:07 +0000

The curfew broke after dawn. But the massacre took place in the middle of the night. The high command of the Salvadoran armed forces, who were receiving a million dollars a day in U.S. aid, made their decision near midnight. They had been on the defensive over the past...

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Uribe, Courts Hold Critical Journalists in Contempt

Frank Smyth — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:11:51 +0000

Original story ran on the Committee to Protect Journalists blog Daniel Coronell's name didn't come up in a hearing this week on Capitol Hill, even though CPJ had just learned that a Colombian court had ordered the arrest of the respected Canal Uno TV reporter and Semana magazine columnist over his work. Coronell is one

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