Video: The Honduran Battle for Washington

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

As talks for a peaceful resolution fail, a fierce battle is on to win over the US government

Lanny Davis, former spokesperson for Hilary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential Campaign, is now lobbying on behalf of Honduran business interests for the US Government to recognize the coup government in Honduras. He is one of numerous faces that have appeared before Congress recently, trying to persuade lawmakers that what is happening in Honduras is not a military coup. Meanwhile, Honduran human rights monitor has documented over 1100 human rights violations in three weeks under the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti. The result is a showdown in Washington between high-powered lawyers, politicians and lobbyists on one side, and on the other some dedicated anti-coup activists and one Honduran delegation.

Bio
Jari Dixon Herrera is a district attorney with the Honduran Attorney Generals office, and the Vice President of the Association of Honduran Government Attorneys (Asocación de Fiscales de Honduras). In 2008, he gained national fame for coordinating a hunger strike by lawyers who work for the Attorney Generals office, to protest widespread corruption inside the legal system.

Marvin Ponce is a member of Honduras’ National Congress, representing the Democratic Union party (UD). He has been a vocal leader of the anti-coup resistance and was selected to speak on behalf of a coalition of organizations in Washington.

Honduras: Anti-Chavez ‘free speech’ warriors linked to coup By Federico Fuentes

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

18 July, 2009 — Green Left

Caracas – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is well-known for its mission to expose the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez as a threat to free speech ‘all over the continent’.

These brave free speech warriors made a big deal this year about how they ‘dared’ to hold a meeting in the Venezuelan capital, ‘defying’ the repression of Chavez’s dictatorial regime.

It turns out that the IAPA has found little to condemn in regards to the dictatorship that has installed itself by military force in Honduras.

This regime has closed many media outlets, threatened and detained journalists, suspended constitutional rights, imposed nation-wide curfews and expelled the broadcasting teams of Latin America-wide station Telesur and Venezuelan state TV channel VTV from Honduras at gunpoint.

While it ‘condemns’ some of the attacks on freedom of speech, it has ittle to say about the coup regime itself.

This is because, for the IAPA, there was no coup.

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Iran: the new elite By Vladimir YURTAYEV

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

2 July, 2009 — Strategic Culture Foundation

The early days of summer of 2009 proved quite stormy in the Islamic Republic of Iran in terms of politics. Almost the entire politically vocal population of the 70-million strong Iran, that’s 40 million people, took part in the election of a new president. It is for the first time in Iran’s history that a fully-fledged election campaign has been launched in the country, with the main opponents, old rivals in the struggle for power since the 1980s, namely the incumbent leader (rahbar) Ali Khamenei and Mir Hossein Mousavi, then Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, had an opportunity to rally their supporters.

Following his secure win of the presidential election of the 12th of June 2009, the incumbent president M. Ahmadinejad had a chance of getting in the lead of a united country after a dynamic election and his win in the first round. But this failed to prove the case. The proclaimed loser Mir Hossein Mousavi of the Islamic Revolution ‘Old Guards’ urged his supporters to energetically contest the election returns and to take to the streets. The ensuing clashes in Tehran resulted in spilt blood and loss of human life on both sides. Judging by reports in western news media, the standoff was expected to spiral up, but it has grown clear that a repetition of the 1978 anti-Shah boat-rocking scenario will fail to become a reality. Back in 1978 the Islamic revolution in Iran began precisely with mass-scale street protests during the ceremonies of remembering the victims of the Shah’s repressions. Today the opposition is still weak and unprepared to go it too far. Of no minor importance was the determination that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps displayed by saying it was prepared to make short shrift of protests to enforce law and order.

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Future of Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces In the Wake of Obama's Moscow Visit By General Leonid Ivashov

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

19 July, 2009 — Global Research – Strategic Cultural Foundation

Now that US President Obama’s visit to Moscow is over, what do we have at the bottom line?

First, the summit produced a framework document defining the number of strategic carriers quite broadly (500-1,100) and the number of nuclear warheads – in a narrower corridor (1,500-1,675). The limits are set by the US and Russian Presidents for their negotiating teams and can easily be adjusted in case the sides reach another consensus on the issue.

Secondly, Presidents Obama and Medvedev discussed the future of the US missile defense, but this part of the talks led to no definite agreements. All that was said was that the existing viewpoints would have to be taken into account. Moreover, by default the examination of missile defense was limited to just two – and not even the most important – of the hundreds of elements it actually comprises.

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MICHAEL, WALTER AND NELSON IN AN ERA OF ICONOMANIA By Danny Schechter

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

Worshipping Heroes Is Not The Same As Learning Their Life Lessons

New York, New York: What a time for Iconomania, none of it critical, none of it questioning, none offering deeper perspective or leading to very revealing coverage.

Politicians may rule but celebrities dominate in a culture where every pol dreams of shaping an aura that inspires hero worship and adoration. That was Barack Obama’s trump card with his eloquence often blinding us to the substance of his stances.

First there was Michael Jackson’s death with wall-to-wall coverage dominated by our info-tainment media where show biz and news biz merges more easily than media companies.

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Government Gone Mad By Joel S. Hirschhorn

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

Perhaps most Americans deserve the federal government they have. A government that, contrary to the lofty rhetoric of Barack Obama, is pure politics as usual. A government that is as corrupted by moneyed interests as ever. A government that is as dysfunctional and inefficient as ever.

A government that should have prevented the current recession but did not and now has spent horrendous amounts of money that has largely been wasted. A government that has put many future generations in debt. A government that makes a mockery out of the concept of democracy.

As Robert J. Samuelson has aptly said, the federal $787 billion stimulus package is “mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes. As a result, much of the stimulus’s potential benefit has been squandered.”

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Dick Cheney’s “Executive Assassination Ring”. Was British Weapons Expert Dr. David Kelly a Target? By Tom Burghardt

July 21, 2009Leave a comment

17 July, 2009 — Global Research – Antifascist Calling…

Revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency launched a world-wide assassination program, and then concealed its existence from the U.S. Congress and the American people for eight years, carries an implication that death squads may have been employed against political opponents.

The Wall Street Journal reported July 13 that “A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.”

Investigative journalist Siobhan Gorman writes, “The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance.”

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