[coldtea]

>Fortunately, the U.S. has not yet made a habit of disappearing human rights activists and dissidents on a whim.

You'd be surprised. For one, of course the US (plus local lackeys) do that all the time in foreign countries.

But there are people like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A9n_Salazar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Zeta_Acosta

Others, OTOH, are merely discredited, with some higher up pushing to get them fired, etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb