Gloria Estela La Riva (born August 13, 1954, in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is an American politician associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She was the party's 2008 presidential candidate, and was also vying for the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party in California, but lost the bid to Ralph Nader. La Riva launched her presidential campaign in January 2008, with Eugene Puryear running for vice president.

La Riva was first a third-party candidate for President of the United States in the United States presidential election, 1992, representing the Workers World Party, although this was an unofficial run as basically a placeholder on a few state ballots. She had also been the Workers World vice-presidential candidate in the elections of 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2000. She joined the Party for Socialism and Liberation in its split from the Workers World Party in 2004.

La Riva was also the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Governor of California in 1994, receiving 72,774 votes (0.9%). She ran again in the 1998 gubernatorial election, capturing 59,218 votes (0.71%).

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, who served as the 30th Governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. Before being elected governor, Richardson served in the Clinton administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary. Richardson has also served as a U.S. Congressman, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On December 3, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama designated Richardson for appointment to the cabinet-level position of Commerce Secretary. On January 4, 2009, Richardson announced his decision to withdraw his nomination because of an investigation into possibly improper business dealings in New Mexico. In August 2009, federal prosecutors dropped the pending investigation against the governor, and there was speculation in the media regarding Richardson's career, as his second and final term as New Mexico governor concluded.

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González) are five Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in the United States to observe and infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command and the Cuban-American groups Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue.

At their trial, evidence was presented that the Five infiltrated the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, obtained employment at the Key West Naval Air Station in order to send the Cuban government reports about the base, and had attempted to penetrate the Miami facility of U.S. Southern Command. On February 24, 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban military jets in international airspace while flying away from Cuban airspace, killing the four U.S. citizens aboard. One of the Five, Gerardo Hernández, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for supplying information to the Cuban government which according to the prosecution led to the shootdown. The Court of Appeals has, however, reversed the conviction on the conspiracy to commit murder, since there is no evidence that Hernández knew the shootdown would occur in international airspace.

Malik Zulu Shabazz (born Paris Lewis in 1968) is an American attorney and the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party. He is a frequent guest on television talk shows.

Shabazz was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father, James Lewis, was a Muslim who was killed under mysterious circumstances when Shabazz was a child. He credits his mother, who became a successful businesswoman, and his grandfather, who introduced him to the Nation of Islam, as strong influences.

Shabazz graduated from Howard University and the Howard University School of Law. In 1995, while he was a law student, Shabazz ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Washington, D.C., City Council. In 1996, Shabazz founded Black Lawyers for Justice.

In 1998, he was recognized by the National Bar Association with its "Young Lawyer of the Year" award. Later that year, he again ran without success for a seat on the D.C. Council.

Shabazz first came to widespread public attention in 1994, when Unity Nation, a student group he founded at Howard University, invited Khalid Abdul Muhammad, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, to speak. Introducing the speaker, Shabazz engaged in a call and response with the audience:

Wayne Madsen (born April 25, 1954) is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist, author and columnist specializing in intelligence and international affairs. He is the author of the blog Wayne Madsen Report.

Madsen was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania on 28 April 1954 to an American mother and a Danish mariner. His grandmother, who emigrated to the U.S. with his father after World War II was Victoria Madsen, a Danish communist party official. In the 1950s Victoria Madsen was deported by the FBI

Madsen attended the University of Mississippi where he joined the Navy ROTC.

Upon graduation from University of Mississippi, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned an ensign.

In 1982 he was stationed at the Coos Head Naval Facility. Naval Facility Coos Head had an allowance of twelve officers, ninety-five enlisted and 15 civilians. He was later given a bad fitness report by his executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Marney Finch.

His new commanding officer at Coos Bay transferred him to Washington D.C. He resigned from the Navy in 1985 as a lieutenant, having been passed over for promotion. Madsen described himself as the "most senior lieutenant in the Navy" at the time of his resignation and has blamed his lack of advance on a powerful group of pedophiles hidden in the top of the U.S. Navy ranks. Madsen says that independent investigations into illegal homosexual activity in the federal government by other journalists were eventually published by the Washington Times in 1989.