The Case of Charles Horman Revisited: Complication and Conflict within Declassification

On September 11, 1973, a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile, overthrowing the government of socialist president Salvador Allende. In the days that followed, agents of the Chilean junta rounded up, detained, imprisoned, and in many cases executed those perceived to be sympathetic to the former government. In the first two weeks following the coup, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that the military government executed nearly 2,000 people. One victim of this repression was a U.S. citizen, Charles Horman, a journalist and filmmaker who, along with his wife, had settled in Chile in 1972 to witness socialism first-hand. Members of the Chilean military seized Horman from his home, which was searched and ransacked, on September 17, and executed him sometime shortly after this.To the Hormans and many observers since, including a Department of State investigator, it appeared unlikely that a U.S. citizen could have been killed by a foreign government, during the height of the Cold War, without the act being somehow condoned by the U.S. Mystery continues to surround not only the circumstances of Charles Horman\u27s death, but also the role of the CIA and U.S. embassy in the episode and the latter\u27s long and fraught investigation. To complicate the picture, in 1976, a former Chilean intelligence officer claimed that he had been privy to the order of Horman’s execution. All of this makes for an intriguing case. To try to untangle and understand the circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Horman, this thesis attempts to synthesize the few scholarly and journalistic investigations of the episode and then to place them in conversation with hundreds of official U.S. documents relating to the case that were declassified in 1999 and 2000 as part of the Chilean Declassification Project. A close review of the declassified record provides the opportunity to trace the certainties and the remaining ambiguities of the case, and to show how a disappearance and death of a U.S. citizen was quickly politicized when the Hormans and other observers suspected U.S. complicity. While this review of the case largely examines evidence from the Department of State, it ultimately reveals the lack of declassified files from other U.S. agencies, namely the CIA

Crisis Management in the Tourism Industry-The Role of Social Media Platforms

The tourism industry is highly susceptible to various forms of risks operating in the industry that occur and go unattended over a period of time. Social media could be effectively used to address the risks. Studies, however, on social media and its role in crisis management are few in spite of a consistent e mphasis on the importance of social media in the tourism industry, specifically, its role in crisis management. This paper provides a review of the current state of affairs and provides a framework to involve social media research in crisis management in tourism

Banishment in Public Housing: Testing an Evolution of Broken Windows

Banishment policies grant police the authority to formally ban individuals from entering public housing and arrest them for trespassing if they violate the ban. Despite its widespread use and the social consequences resulting from it, an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of banishment has not been performed. Understanding banishment enforcement is an evolution of broken windows policing, this study explores how effective bans are at reducing crime in public housing. We analyze crime data, spanning the years 2001–2012, from six public housing communities and 13 surrounding communities in one southeastern U.S. city. Using Arellano-Bond dynamic panel models, we investigate whether or not issuing bans predicts reductions in property and violent crimes as well as increases in drug and trespass arrests in public housing. We find that this brand of broken windows policing does reduce crime, albeit relatively small reductions and only for property crime, while resulting in an increase in trespass arrests. Given our findings that these policies have only a modest impact on property crime, yet produce relatively larger increases in arrests for minor offenses in communities of color, and ultimately have no significant impact on violent crime, it will be important for police, communities, and policy makers to discuss whether the returns are worth the potential costs

Confounding effect of EEG implantation surgery: Inadequacy of surgical control in a two hit model of temporal lobe epilepsy

AbstractIn rodent models of epilepsy, EEG implantation surgery is an essential modality to evaluate electrographic seizures. The inflammatory consequences of EEG electrode-implantation and their resultant effects on seizure susceptibility are unclear. We evaluated electrode-implantation in a two-hit model of epileptogenesis in C57BL/6 mice that included brief, recurrent febrile seizures (FS) at P14 and kainic acid induced seizures (KA-SZ) at P28. During KA-SZ, latencies to first electrographic and behavioral seizures, seizure severity, and KA dose sensitivity were measured. Mice that received subdural screw electrode implants at P25 for EEG monitoring at P28 had significantly shorter latencies to seizures than sham mice, regardless of early life seizure experience. Electrode-implanted mice were sensitive to low dose KA as shown by high mortality rate at KA doses above 10mg/kg. We then directly compared electrode-implantation and KA-SZ in seizure naive CX3CR1GFP/+ transgenic C57BL/6 mice, wherein microglia express green fluorescent protein (GFP), to determine if microglia activation related to surgery was associated with the increased seizure susceptibility in electrode-implanted mice from the two-hit model. Hippocampal microglia activation, as demonstrated by percent area GFP signal and GFP positive cell counts, prior to seizures was indistinguishable between electrode-implanted mice and controls, but was significantly greater in electrode-implanted mice following seizures. Electrode-implantation had a confounding priming effect on the inflammatory response to subsequent seizures

Growing Aesthetics Into the Biowall

Aesthetic Considerations for Biowall Design & Operation A Biowall is a plant-based filter used to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in a residence. This area of research leverages NASA’s 30 years of experience on plant filtration capabilities. A result of that research is NASA’s Top 10 Air Filtering Plant list. These plants are identified for their ability to remove carbon based and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) contaminants from the air; non-toxicity to human plant owners; ease of growth; and expected lifespan. In addition to improving IAQ, a Biowall has a unique and important role in the aesthetics of the space where it is located. A Biowall is a technology that brings nature indoors and enhances overall sustainability. If the Biowall does not have a pleasant appearance, nobody is going to want one. This research targeted both aesthetics and functionality in a conditional plant growth study within a fully operational Biowall in a home. The goal was to identify which plants grow well within the 0artificial, low nutrient environment and document how to care for these plants. The result was a toolbox of known air filtering plants that can thrive in the Biowall environment, while also making eye-pleasing arrangements with the plant filtration trays. This knowledge will aid in the commercialization of the concept