Peru Revokes Parole for 'Activist' Lori Berenson

Amazing how low media standards have sunk when a convicted leftist terrorist is called an activist.

A court in Peru has revoked parole for American activist Lori Berenson. It orders that she be captured and sent back to prison to finish the last five years of her 20-year prison sentence for aiding leftist rebels.

The BBC refers to her as a 'rebel' in their account.

A Peruvian site accurately calls Berenson what she is, a Marxist.

Previously.

Women Throwing Panties at Peruvian 'Tom Jones'

This guy doesn't look like anything special, so maybe it's some odd traits I'm unaware of. Then again, Bill Clinton has always had his "special charm" or something with the ladies.

Charles Zevallos, a politician in Peru's Amazon basin, often wins kisses from female supporters - but things have moved to a whole new level as women at his rallies have started throwing their underwear at him.

Zevallos, a candidate for mayor in the province of Maynas, has made a tradition of giving fans, watches or soccer balls at his rallies in exchange for women's kisses.

But in the past few days, some supporters have taken off their underpants and tossed them to him during rallies for his progressive party, 1000 Movimiento Integracion Loretana.

Zevallos has downplayed any resemblance to Tom Jones, the Welsh crooner who for years was showered with women's panties while performing at pop music concerts.

Commentators in Peru's capital of Lima, 1600km from Maynas, said the underwear throwing was proof that politics in the Andean country had reached a new low.

"It was spontaneous, I didn't ask for them, but then I saw a pair of yellow ones, and then another woman threw another pair at me," Zevallos said.

This dude certainly doesn't look like Tom Jones, but by the same token Jones is looking a little grizzled himself.

"I don't know if this will stop, it's really crazy here right now. The people love me," Zevallos said.

'Go Away, Terrorist!'

Doesn't seem like the Peruvians are exactly thrilled to have convicted terrorist Lori Berenson out living among them. Of course according to the Associated Press this poor misguided naif isn't a terrorist.

She's an activist. The alternate reality of the media really is something to behold. Mainstream Americans of right-of-center persuasion are typically maligned as frothing "extremists" while actual terrorists are known as activists. And they wonder why people hold them in such contempt. At least the Peruvian people know a terrorist when they see one.

Activist Lori Berenson walked out of prison smiling Thursday but got a chilly reception from her new neighbors after serving three-quarters of a 20-year sentence for aiding leftist rebels.

Now 40, the New Yorker spent more than a third of her life behind bars — getting married, giving birth, undergoing back surgery — but never denouncing the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement she was convicted of abetting.

When she was arrested in November 1995 with the wife of the group's leader, prosecutors said Berenson was helping it plot a takeover of Peru's Congress that never happened. The following month, police found a forged ID card bearing her photo in a raid on a rebel safe house.

But Berenson apparently became less strident over the years, many of them spent in frigid prisons in the high Andes. Documents her defense team provided to the judge who granted her parole Tuesday said Berenson had "recognized she committed errors" getting involved with the rebels.

If she's recognized her errors, then why is she going to work for a far-left, America-hating group?

A year after Berenson's arrest, the Tupac Amaru gained notoriety when 13 of its members stormed the Japanese ambassador's residents and seized hostages. Among their demands was Berenson's release. The standoff ended 126 days later with all the rebels killed.

Berenson's release Thursday from Santa Monica women's prison was a tempest in itself. She squeezed through a horde of reporters into a car driven by her husband and attorney, Anibal Apari, to be driven to the Lima apartment where she is to reside.

Two Peruvian reporters jumped into the car, which had a minor collision a block away with a TV channel's vehicle.

Their couple's son, Salvador, who has been living with his mother since his birth a year ago, was taken to the apartment separately by Berenson's parents, who flew in from New York City on Wednesday.

The judge who granted Berenson parole said she must stay in Lima until her sentence ends in November 2015. But Peru's justice minister, Victor Garcia, told the Radioprogramas network Thursday that the Cabinet could decide to commute the sentence and expel Berenson.

"This is a really nasty situation for Peruvians," Garcia said, suggesting the government was not necessarily pleased Berenson had been paroled. President Alan Garcia said Tuesday that it was not his place to comment on whether he considered the judge's decision appropriate.

It was unclear whether any other legal problems could complicate Berenson's eventual return to the United States. U.S. Embassy spokesman James Fennell said he could not comment on the case due to privacy laws.

Many Peruvians were unhappy with Berenson's release.

"Go away, terrorist!" shouted 42-year-old Carol Philips as Berenson and Apari pushed their way through a throng of journalists to get into the apartment building in the upscale Miraflores neighborhood where Berenson is to live.

Her parents told The Associated Press they came not just for the joy of their daughter's release but also to help childproof the apartment.

"I don't know whose idea it was to put this terrorist here as a neighbor," said another neighbor, Rene Vela.

Berenson appeared calm, almost bemused, as she sat for some five minutes in the Apari's car outside the apartment. She wore dangling bead earrings, a khaki green button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and carried a black bag with blue straps.

She did not speak to reporters.

The Miraflores district mayor, Manuel Macias, told reporters Berenson should find a home elsewhere.

"The way out of this perhaps is for her expulsion from the country," he said.

The judge who paroled Berenson said she had "completed re-education, rehabilitation and re-socialization" and demonstrated "positive behavior."

Berenson has long maintained she was a political prisoner and not a terrorist. She shouted to reporters in her first public appearance after her November 1995 arrest: "There are no criminal terrorists in the MRTA. It is a revolutionary movement."

No doubt when this maggot returns to America she'll be feted on the talk-show and lecture circuits and will be eagerly courted by publishers.

They should have executed her 15 years ago.

Is There An Expiration Date on Bush Derangement Syndrome?

We've all seen those moonbat-mobiles adorned with the 1-20-09 bumper stickers, and I firmly hope the affliction known as Bush Derangement Syndrome ceases that day, as the new President of Earth is sworn in and adoring masses freeze their asses off in DC. Alas, I fear we'll never be rid of BDS sufferers. After all, for any of The Messiah's failures, Bush will get the blame.

Today's installment of BDS comes from Peru, where apparently some folks are big fans of leftwing blogs.

PROTESTERS have demanded that US President George W Bush get out of Peru where he is attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, blaming him for the world economic crisis.

"Bush out," about 1000 demonstrators chanted in the centre of the capital Lima, watched by scores of police in riot gear who made sure they did not move towards the APEC summit venue several kilometres away.

"This crisis didn't come from the Peruvian people. We shouldn't have to pay for it," a union leader told the crowd, which demonstrated peacefully.

Mr Bush, one of 21 leaders of Asia-Pacific economies converging on Lima for the weekend summit, arrived shortly after the protest. He was escorted under tight US Secret Service and Peruvian police security from Lima airport to the army headquarters building housing the APEC meetings.

Friday's anti-Bush protest, organised by Peru's biggest labour union, charged that Mr Bush's decision to wage a costly war in Iraq contributed to the financial and economic crises.

"The International Criminal Court should try him for crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression," a big banner next to the main stage for the rally proclaimed.

"Bush - genocide. The Peruvians repudiate your crimes," said another.

"We believe that Bush is responsible for the fall of the financial system," explained Aldo Gil Cristostomo, a 54-year-old mechanic standing near other protesters carrying portraits of Che Guevara.

Aldo, apparently, has never heard of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

"The war in Iraq is partly responsible for the fall," he said.

Mr Cristostomo added that, while he had more sympathy for Mr Bush's successor, Barack Obama, he believed the Democrat "is going to maintain the neo-liberal system" championed by the current US president.

Neo-liberal?

Let us all pray once the third Clinton administration rolls around that Bush can ride off to his ranch and raise his middle finger to all these crackpots. He's handled himself with grace and dignity in the face of the most vicious character assault I can recall. History will judge him much better, I believe. His critics, on the other hand, will not be viewed kindly.