Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Part 3: Cuéntame, The Huffington Post and the Department Of Homeland Security



This story picks up at the conclusion of part two. Click on these links for part one or part two of this series.

A while after I had been unsuccessful in attempting to get the Federal Bureau of Investigations Atlanta office to look into the very questionable circumstances around the death of Roberto Medina, I was contacted about being interviewed by one of Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation's media campaigns. This interview was for the Cuéntame "Immigrants For Sale" video documentary series.

During this interview I was asked about the death of Roberto Medina while he was being detained at the private for-profit Corrections Corporation of America run detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Investigating the many still unanswered questions around his death was part of the documentary series Cuéntame went on to produce (the actual video is posted above). The founder of Cuéntame, Axel W. Caballero, also wrote about Mr. Medina's death and the Cuéntame produced video documentary that I was interviewed in for the Huffington Post.

At the time I did not understand the significance of having my name and story in part told on the Huffington Post. Later I would read a Reuters news service article by Mark Hosenbell that detailed how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was regularly monitoring news organizations, social media, video & photo sharing sites and Internet forum sites to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture." One of the websites specifically mentioned and confirmed by the United States government as being monitored was the Huffington Post. Other sites that the Department of Homeland Security listed as monitoring specifically covered immigration and the need for immigration reform. The report also states that secondary websites they found and went on to monitor from listed sites were not listed. A website like "The 270 View" would seem to fall into that category pretty easily as it could be considered as having been linked to a listed and confirmed government monitored site (The Huffington Post) and also covers information (immigration reform) that we now know that the United States government is monitoring.

In the next part of this series I will get into the actual investigation of myself and this blog by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.