Reason no. 2568 why I hate my school

Free tomorrow night? Need some inspiration in your quest for peace, justice and sustainability? Why not head over to the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment to join in the accolades for guest speaker Libby Cheney, Vice President of Corporate Support at Shell Exploration?! A peek at Ms. Cheney’s bio:

Before joining Shell in 2006, Libby was the Manager of Non-Operated Global Development Projects for ExxonMobil Development Company in Houston, TX where she managed technical resources and decisions for global projects totaling more than $25 billion in gross investment. She began her career as a Reservoir Engineer in Kingsville, Texas. Her background includes various assignments managing multi-functional teams for producing assets from offshore Gulf of Mexico to West Texas and California. Libby subsequently led an organization of 150 engineers and technicians in developing and optimizing onshore . In addition, she spent time as the Senior Strategic Planning contact for project interests in Russia, the Caspian Region, and the Middle East.

Think Cheney will come prepared to discuss Shell’s numerous human rights abuses around the world?  Not at this school.  It was only a couple of years ago that the Dean refused to allow a speaker from CorpWatch to make a presentation in the building about Coke’s participation in human rights atrocities and environmental devastation in India because a representative from Coca Cola had not been invited to tell their side of the story.  Claimed she wanted to support the “fair and balanced” approach, to have all sides of the story represented (while clearly making exceptions for corporate polluters and potential financial donors to the school).

My sister helped save someone’s life yesterday!

This is a picture of my sister Lyn from our trip to Ireland this past summer. Lyn was a swimmer throughout high school and college, and is an avid marathon runner and triathlon participant. In the past couple of years, she has also taken up scuba-diving and is trained as a scuba-diving lifesaver. While running a half-marathon in Ridgefield, Connecticut yesterday, Lyn had the chance to put her life-saving skills to the test.

She noticed a man up ahead of her fall down during the race, and her first thought was “oh, someone just tripped, that really sucks” but immediately realized that he fell straight backwards, landing on his back and hitting his head on the pavement. She and a few other runners knelt down to try to help, none of them knowing what to do. Dark red blood was pouring out of the back of his head on the pavement. His eyes were rolled back into his head and his mouth was open. One runner suggested they elevate his legs, and another held his hand and spoke to him, using his name, Roy (printed on his registration). Someone called 911 and Lyn checked his pulse, then realized that he seemed to have stopped breathing. Then his face had begun to turn purple, and she thought, “I have to do something.”

She began mouth to mouth resuscitation and “put some breath back into him.” After a moment, she said, his chest heaved and he breathed in deeply. At that point another runner came up who was an emergency room doctor and took over until the EMT arrived. Roy was then given a defibrillator and (I believe) a tracheotomy, stabilized, and taken to the hospital (after the ambulance arrived, a full 30 minutes later–ahem). Although Lyn said she’d been taught that you always fill out a report after participating in something like that (using a procedure on someone) she was told it wasn’t necessary, thanked by the EMT and sent on her way. She’ll have to wait, perhaps, until the next race to find out how Roy is recovering.

Isn’t Lyn great?! They call people who perform CPR “rescuers.” Lyn actually gave breaths to Roy who was not breathing by putting her mouth on his and forcing air into his lungs. In situations like this, where someone has stopped breathing and has suffered a heart attack, there is a very small window of opportunity in which to use CPR before permanent brain damage and tissue death will occur. You never know when you might be in a situation like this, and it really makes me want to get certified to do it myself. I’m really proud of my sister for thinking so fast on her feet, for not being afraid to put her knowledge into action, and for doing what it took to keep this man alive until professionals could take over. And Roy, we hope you are hanging in there…

IAUC statement regarding the deportation proceedings against Malachy, Sean and Nicola McAllister

October 1, 2007—The IAUC has dedicated itself to the idea that peace can only occur in an atmosphere that promotes frank and open dialogue amongst all parties to the conflict in the North of Ireland.  This includes the United States of America, which acting as an “honest broker,” facilitated a political atmosphere that allowed for the birth of the current peace process.  The end product of a lasting peace based on enduring democratic principles is now at hand.  Recognizing this, the IAUC has welded itself to the role of identifying and speaking out against anyone and anything which has the potential to thwart the development of the peace and democracy in which so many people and groups have invested so much commitment and energy.

In this spirit, the IAUC must state forthrightly that the United States Government, by actively pursuing the deportation of former Irish Republican activists, is markedly out of step with all other parties involved in this political endeavor.  The US policy is anachronistic and undermines the concept of a “peace dividend.”  By extension this policy will undermine the peace itself.

We urge our government, through our elected representatives and appointed officials, to stand for peace in Ireland.  With all the conviction we can muster, we request that the McAllister family be granted permanent resident status.  To deny this family legal status would be an affront to our country’s longstanding principles of justice and asylum.

Stop the deportation of the McAllister family.

John Fogarty
President
Irish American Unity Conference

michigan apples

It’s that time of year again! Max, Eitan, Joanna and I went apple and raspberry picking on Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day and the trees were bursting with apples. The orchard we went to was unfortunately not organic (I’m not sure if there are any organic apple orchards around these parts), and you could see the pesticide residue on many of the apples. It made me very nervous, and I did my best not to touch my face or put my fingers in my mouth (read: eat with my hands) until after I got home and had a chance to wash them. I don’t know anything about the kinds of pesticides that growers use on apples now, and while they may be less toxic than they were in the days of alar, I didn’t want to take any chances. It was kind of frightening, though, to see the number of children whose parents were allowing them to eat right from the tree…

After stuffing ourselves with cinnamon-sugar donuts and cider, we returned home to prepare for Sunday brunch. Our first brunch with a theme (apples): apples & brie, apple pancakes, crepes with applesauce, apple cake with caramel sauce, bread with apple butter, as well as a vegetable frittata, savory crepes, and applewood smoked bacon…and it was ridiculously delicious. As was the caramel apple ice cream we just finished making. Mmm.

UPDATE: Malachy McAllister action alert

This just in: Senator Frank Lautenberg may be interested in introducing a private bill in the Senate on behalf of the McAllister family.

Malachy McAllister and his two youngest children are facing deportation when the suspension of their order of removal expires in September.  A private bill in the Senate, similar to one attempted by Mr. Rothman in the House, would be their only hope to remain in with the older McAllister children and their families.

To help the McAllister’s our efforts must be focused this weekend September 21, 22, 23^rd to contact the offices of Senator Frank Lautenberg. Our phone calls will demonstrate the importance of this issue.

Please call the Senator’s NJ office at 973.639.8700 AND the DC office at 202.224.3224 and leave the following message:

My name is _______. I am calling from _______. I am calling to ask for Senator Lautenberg’s support to prevent the deportation of Malachy McAllister and his children Sean and Nicola. Please Senator Frank Lautenberg introduce a private bill in the US Senate that would grant permanent resident status to this deserving family.

Please call both numbers this weekend!! If we can get enough messages left this weekend, it may be enough to show Senator Lautenberg that this is a very important issue–and it could get the bill introduced Monday or Tuesday! (Please continue to call after the weekend if you are reading this on Monday or beyond.)

Belfast mother appeals to Iraqi Government

From the Pat Finucane Centre:

Following the decision  of the Iraqi government to expel private security company Blackwater*from the country Belfast mother Jean Mc Bride has appealed to the Iraqis to ‘also show the door’ to British company Aegis Defence Services.   The CEO of Aegis is former Scots Guards officer and mercenary Tim Spicer. Soldiers under Spicer’s command murdered 18 year old Peter Mc Bride in Belfast in 1992 yet Spicer refused to accept that his soldiers did wrong in shooting an unarmed teenager in the back in broad daylight.

Spicer’s private security/mercenary company Aegis has been embroiled in controversary since winning a major security contract in Iraq. In 2005 an ex employee posted a video on the internet which showed an Aegis security team opening fire at random on civilian vehicles in Baghdad.

Speaking today Mrs Mc Bride said,

“The Iraqis have revoked Blackwater’s license to work in Iraq after it emerged that employees opened fire and killed civilians. I would urge the Iraqi Government to also show the door to Aegis and revoke its license. Its employees have been filmed shooting at civilians and neither the company nor the Pentagon bothered to carry out a proper investigation. The CEO of Aegis, Tim Spicer, is on public record as saying that the soldiers who were convicted in a court of law of shooting my son should not even have been charged. I have said repeatedly that Tim Spicer is not fit to be in charge of armed men in a conflict situation. I have now written to Dr. Salah Al-Shaikhly, the Iraqi  Ambassador to Britain and Ireland to make this point and I would appeal to those who have supported my family to date including Gerry Adams MP, Mark Durkan MP and the Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern TD to raise this with the Iraqi Ambassador.

Mrs Mc Bride has also welcomed the announcement that the US Congress is to hold hearings into the use of private security/mercenary companies in Iraq. Earlier this week Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said, “The controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors”. He said his committee would hold hearings on the issue. A number of prominent lawmakers in the US including Barack Obama have called for an inquiry into Aegis following representations on behalf of Mrs Mc Bride.

For info contact the Pat Finucane Centre at 02871 268846

see www.patfinucanecentre.org for extensive background on Aegis and the Peter Mc Bride case

· Blackwater was ordered to leave Iraq following an incident earlier this week when, according to Iraq’s interior ministry, “eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded when Blackwater contractors opened fire on civilians in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Mansour in western Baghdad after mortar rounds landed near their convoy.” The US has promised an investigation however most commentators would be sceptical of any ‘investigation’. Similar allegations into the conduct of Aegis employees were brought to the attention of the US Consul in Belfast, Howard Dean Pitman and the US Special Envoy to Ireland, Mitchel Reiss in meetings with Jean Mc Bride. Neither diplomat honoured commitments made to Jean Mc Bride at the time.

Lobby for US Senate/Congressional Hearings into the Aegis contract. In 2004, Spicer’s new mercenary firm Aegis won a major security in Iraq. What role did two former British officers working for the Coalition Provisonal Authority, Brigadier General Anthony Hunter-Choat and Brigadier General James Ellery, play in the award of the contract to Aegis?

Ellery went on to head the Baghdad office of Aegis, which was later heavily criticised by US Government auditors who found the company could not prove that its armed employees received proper weapons training or that it had vetted Iraqi employees.

Contact Details

Contact Congressman Henry Waxman who intends to hold hearings on the use of private security/mercenary companies.http://www.house.gov/waxman/

To find a Senator visit: http://www.senate.gov Telephone numbers for Senators can be found at: http://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_ph…t.pdf List of mailing addresses for all Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senat…m.cfm To find your Members of Congress visit: http://www.house.gov Telephone Numbers of all offices: http://clerk.house.gov/members/ttd_109.pdf Mailing labels/list of addresses to send letters to each Member of Congress in MicroSoft Word format: http://clerk.house.gov/members/wordmemberlabels.doc Websites of U.S. Embassies, Consulates, and Diplomatic Missions: http://usembassy.state.gov/

Contact Derry office info@patfinucanecentre.org or Newry office newry@patfinucanecentre.org  Please delete all other PFC emails. Website www.patfinucanecentre.org

Stop the deportation of the McAllister family

Matt Morrison, a former Irish republican political prisoner and current Political Action Chair of the Irish American Unity Conference, issued this statement in response to the announcement that Malachy McAllister and his sons may be deported in 2 weeks time:

A Chairde, As a former Irish Republican POW and deportee, I abhor the planned deportation of Malachy Mc Alliister and his family members by the United States Government. It was not many years ago that I and my family along with a number of my comrades and their families, were in a similar predicament.

For many years, the “peace dividend” was held out as an incentive to engage in the process which ultimately resulted in the current peace in Ireland. The United States Government, in pursuing Malachy Mc Allister’s deportation, is undermining the concept of the peace dividend, and is sending out a message that is driven by a desire for retribution that is dangerously irrational and anachronistic. The United States Government has placed itself at odds with the people of Ireland who are working hard to achieve a lasting peace based on the twin foundations of democracy and equality. The United States Government is undermining the new powersharing assembly and is thwarting the efforts of the Irish and British Governments and the numerous political parties who have engaged in peace building efforts.

You cannot say that you are for peace in Ireland and yet remain silent or inactive in the face of the imminent McAllister deportation.

Here is some background on the McAllister case for those of you who are not familiar:

The McAllisters are a Catholic family from Northern Ireland who have been seeking political asylum in the United States since 1996. On October 2, 1988, two masked loyalist gunmen smashed the front window of the McAllister home and fired 26 shots into the house narrowly missing three of the McAllister children and their grandmother, who was minding them. Malachy and his wife, Bernadette (who has since died of cancer in 2004), were not home at the time. They were later notified by the Royal Ulster Constabulary that Malachy’s security information was found in a loyalist ’safe house’ along with the guns used in the shooting. This information confirmed that the McAllisters were being deliberately targeted and that the loyalist attack had been planned in collusion with the security forces. Other members of the McAllister’s family had also been targeted. Theresa Clinton, a relative, was murdered when loyalists fired shots into her living room. Bernadette’s family members had been warned by the RUC to take security precautions because, like Malachy, their personal details were in the hands of paramilitary organizations. The threats have followed the McAllisters even here to the United States. In 2005, a loyalist terror group called the Red Hand Defenders emailed a threat against the McAllisters to the Irish Echo newspaper stating that, “We won’t miss next time.”

It is not clear why the government has chosen to proceed in the McAllister case, while suspending action on many of the other Irish ‘deportee’ cases. The McAllisters have had the constant support of a number of our congressmen and senators, whose intervention resulted in a ’suspension of order of removal’. Unfortunately, that stay expires in early September. Congressman Steven Rothman introduced a private bill in the House and now the McAllisters only hope may be if Senator Menendez will introduce legislation in the Senate to delay or suspend the McAllister’s deportation.

Act now to prevent this injustice by contacting Menendez and urging him to introduce legislation to protect the McAllister family and prevent their deportation. Cut and paste the letter below and send and/or fax it (202.228.2197) to Senator Menendez’s office today. You can also call his office directly at 202.224.4744.

Dear Senator Menendez,
As a member of (insert name of org. if applicable) I am well aware of the invaluable support you have given to many important Irish issues and express my gratitude for your constancy and courage. I am particularly grateful for the leadership role you assumed in defending Malachy McAllister and his family when they were first threatened with deportation some years ago. Sadly, that threat still looms over the McAllister family.
Malachy and his two youngest children are facing deportation when the suspension of their order of removal expires in early September. They have been advised by Congressman Steven Rothman that a private bill in the Senate, similar to one attempted by Mr. Rothman in the House, would be their only hope to remain in New Jersey with the older McAllister children and their families. This legislation is crucial to secure the safety of Malachy and his children.

The blatant threats of violence that have been made against the McAllister family still stand. Despite the many welcome improvements brought about by the Peace Process, the reality is that loyalist paramilitaries have refused to decommission and are still armed and threatening. Many believe that if forced to return to Northern Ireland the McAllisters will once again be the targets of violence.

I respectfully request that you give this matter your immediate attention and introduce legislation in the Senate as soon as possible. Again, I thank you for the courage and leadership you have shown over the years in addressing many vital Irish issues.

Filleadh ar an Scoil!

Now that September has arrived, it’s time for me to return to my Irish classes.  The first was on Wednesday, and despite the fact that the first two reminder emails for the class also mentioned a wake for someone and announced the death of another, we actually focused on vocabulary the entire time.  To be fair, the woman who died recently used to attend the class a few years ago (before I joined) and was a friend of many of the other students…but a large part of the reason that I stopped going last spring (no classes over the summer) was due to the return of our regular teacher.  For the first half of the year (and my introduction to the class), we would spend a full half to three quarters of our hour-long class talking about who was sick and in the hospital, who was undergoing chemo, who just found out they had breast cancer, or who had recently died.

Granted, most of the students in the class are much older than I am, and they have been part of the Gaelic League community for years and years.  There’s certainly something to be said for the camaraderie and community that the class provides for many of the students–it’s just hard when you are trying to learn a language and the class is the only opportunity you have to practice and speak to people.  I suppose it’s worth mentioning that my dad speaks Irish fluently and also teaches it sometimes, but he lives 700 miles away from me, so unfortunately I can’t avail myself of his tutelage.  One day soon I hope to be more comfortable speaking and writing and we can start practicing over the phone and over email.

Until then, wish me luck as I continue to learn.  If you want to come, it’s only $3 a class!

Reflections from an Irish Activist with the ISM in Palestine

The following is the first part of an article by Irish peace activist Damien Moran, whom some of you may remember as one of the Pitstop Ploughshares.  To read Damien’s reflections in their entirety, please go here.

The following is not intended to be an attempt at a comprehensive analysis of the current situation in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Instead, it is a reflection on the past few weeks I have spent with the International Solidarity Movement in the city of Hebron and its environs and what brought me here in the first place. It is completely subjective and deliberately intended to be so. It is merely a personal reflection, and therefore should not be taken as representative of the views of the ISM.

I am a firm believer that the shortest distance between a person and the truth is a story. Many stories I have heard and read about regarding resistance to occupation, capitalism, imperialism have formed my sense of what is right and wrong – and on which side of the fence I am on. So if you manage to read through this lengthy piece of writing, I hope the stories of resistance I have encountered over the past few weeks will inspire you also to keep on fighting the powers that be, wherever and whenever you encounter them.

Part I

It’s 8 a.m., Tuesday morning, and the city of Hebron – in the southern region of the West Bank of Palestine, has awoken. The initial morning calls to prayer from the surrounding mosques have well passed, a few Palestinian workers are wiping sleep from their eyes and some seem like they are in sleep-walking mode as they journey to work on foot from the heavily-militarised H2 Israeli district to the Palestinian Authority controlled H1 section.

It could be any other city in the world given the evident rituals of work, rest, and play – that is apart from the blatantly obvious fact that the city of Hebron is under a brutally repressive, 6,000 Israeli soldier strong, military occupation. And these soldiers are here to ‘protect’ the 600 or so settlers who live in the H2 area, which makes up 20% of all Hebron. Approximately 40,000 Palestinians lived in the area in 2005 but this number is steadily decreasing due to ever-increasing repression and violence

It is the first time I have ever lived in an occupied country. Even though I am from Ireland, the occupation of the Northern part of our country was a universe away for most of us who grew up in the southern Republic. Images that flashed on the screen on a daily basis when I was growing up remained just that – flashes on a screen. The impact of the Northern Ireland conflict on Irish society as a whole was nowhere to be seen, and was especially far removed from my home town, 130 kilometres away from the border. Yet, for those who have resisted imperialism and capitalism in the North of Ireland, the symbols of the Palestinian people and their struggle – which can be found in Republican areas of Northern Ireland – embody the universal spirit for true freedom. Fights against oppressive conditions tend to identify with each other easily and employ each others’ symbols in a clear manifestation of mutual solidarity. Hence, one can also see the Kurdish flag and Basque flag in a variety of districts in Belfast and Derry. That said, I have yet to see a tricolour here! But once one says they are from Ireland the amazing hospitality and friendliness of Palestinians elevates to even higher levels than normal.

Despite the fact that this is my first time in the Middle East, I have had previous voluntary experience in Haiti, where I worked for 3 months in early 2001. The stark poverty there and amazing spirit of survival manifested through their great sense humour and generosity was a significant eye-opener for a 21 year old from the midlands of Ireland. Haitians taught me many valuable lessons then about simple living, just as Palestinians have been teaching me invaluable lessons about their struggle since I arrived here almost 4 weeks ago. The domestic societal pressures I and other Westerners face, from San Francisco to Warsaw, Oslo to Madrid – whether to choose Nike or Adidas, Levis or Wranglers, Coca Cola or Pepsi – seems like such bullshit falsity when measured against the fact that it is people like ordinary Haitians who slave labour for our commodity overload and Palestinians who bear the brunt of our nation’s obsession with weapons sales to the Apartheid Israeli State.

Thankfully, groups like the ISM, Christian Peacemaker Team and many others exist to counter the exploitation and violence perpetuated by the political powerbrokers, cynical warmongers, and the ubiquitious capitalists.

In my own case, on return to Ireland after volunteering in Haiti, I had to decide whether I was to conform to the Irish Celtic Tiger economic expectation of attaining a brand-new 2.6 litre car, producing 2.3 children, constructing an 8 room house (3 times more than required), signing up for a 35 year mortgage in a cramped urban space with few social services, and putting aside a sufficent quantity of disposable income for 2 sun holidays a year in order to make up for the eternally falling rain in Ireland – and all by the time I would have reached 27 years old. Yes, I know, sounds pretty boring! And yet many feel forced into such economic and social traps, and of course not just in Ireland, by well-groomed real estate charmers, loan sharks and city councillor land rezoners, just because they want to start a family and bring up their kids in a secure environment.

That course of life may seem good to some, and more power to them if they can enjoy themselves and be active citizens at the same time. But for those of us who have had the privilege to form relationships with those who struggle to survive in their daily lives, whether amongst the poor and oppressed of the Global North or South, our responsibilities to respond through sharing some of their experiences and refusing to descend into slumber are to the fore of consciences. And that is exactly why I decided to come to Palestine (I know, it has taken me a while to get to this point) – to reignite my sense of responsibility towards the other, to develop mutually beneficial relationships with those having to confront occupation and violence in their normal daily rituals – of work, rest, and play

Anyhow, enough about soldiers. Thankfully I was free to come here, albeit for a short period of time, having no mortgage, kids (the only part of this triangle I would like to have) nor gas-guzzling car – and having a very understanding and supportive girlfriend and family to support me. I look upon it as a huge privilege and yet great challenge and responsibility to be able to travel and exerience resistance against occupation by the people here. They have much to teach us who live in countries ridden with individualism and materialism.

Even though I’m from Ireland, for the past two years I have been residing in Poland, teaching English and desperately struggling to learn the nightmarish Polish language. So when I decided to initiate contact with the ISM about the possibilities of working alongside them in Palestine, I started to recall previous stories of theirs which I had followed. A good friend of mine had been shot in the leg by an IOF soldier in 2002 while others had volunteered as short-termers. Last year I attended a very well produced play in Ireland which was based on the journals by the very inspiring ISM’er Rachel Corrie. And before I left Poland by train to make my way here I just managed to finish reading Jocelyn Hurndall’s book about her son Tom, fatally shot by an IOF soldier in the Gaza Strip in 2003, just shortly after Rachel had been murdered.

See this movie: No End in Sight

It’s playing at the Michigan Theater right now, and I saw it with some friends last night. A.O. Scott, perhaps my favorite New York Times movie critic, called it “a sober, revelatory and absolutely vital film,” and he does a much better summary than I could right now. A couple of excerpts from his review:

If failure, as the saying goes, is an orphan, then “No End in Sight” can be thought of as a brief in a paternity suit, offering an emphatic, well- supported answer to a question that has already begun to be mooted on television talk shows and in journals of opinion: Who lost Iraq? On Mr. Ferguson’s short list are Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and L. Paul Bremer III. None of them agreed to be interviewed for the film. Perhaps they will watch it.

It is important to note that Mr. Ferguson’s principal interlocutors were not, at the time, critics of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq but rather people who had, often at considerable professional cost and personal risk, committed themselves to fulfilling those policies. They include Barbara Bodine, a diplomat with long experience in the Middle East; Paul Eaton, an Army major general; Seth Moulton, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps; and Jay Garner, the retired lieutenant general who served as head of the Organization of Recovery and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq.

That agency, set up to rebuild and stabilize Iraq after the invasion, soon gave way to the Coalition Provisional Authority, directed by Mr. Bremer, who took over in May 2003. Already, according to the eyewitnesses interviewed in “No End in Sight,” terrible mistakes had been made. Looting and other early manifestations of disorder were more likely to be met with Rumsfeldian aphorisms — “Stuff happens”; freedom is “untidy” — than with appropriate tactical responses. And then, once the provisional authority assumed control, orders came down to purge the bureaucracy and the civil service of all members of the Baath Party and to dismantle the Iraqi military. As Mr. Eaton and Mr. Garner tell it, the last policy was especially disastrous and was arrived at and carried out precipitously and without discussion.

They, Ms. Bodine, and others — including Richard L. Armitage and Lawrence Wilkerson of the State Department — describe from the inside what has become, to the rest of us, a recognizable pattern. The knowledge and expertise of military, diplomatic and technical professionals was overridden by the ideological certainty of political loyalists. Republican Party operatives, including recent college graduates with little or no relevant experience, were put in charge of delicate and complicated administrative areas. Those who did not demonstrate lock-step fidelity to the White House line were ignored or pushed aside.