Two new reports dealing with the June 28 military coup in Honduras have demolished the arguments of the current de facto government and its foreign apologists that the coup was consistent with the Honduran constitution and that most Hondurans welcomed the illegal ouster of the country’s democratically elected president, Mel Zelaya.

Hoekstra said Justice's refusal to brief under oath is part of a "disturbing pattern that has emerged of the Obama administration refusing or finding reasons to refuse to share information with Congress."

Both the House and the Senate intelligence committees have advanced legislation that would require more intelligence disclosures to Congress, though the details of the bills differ. The Obama administration has threatened to veto the House legislation if it is passed.

Honduran Coup Regime Mocks UN Security Council with Embassy Attacks
by Al Giordano - September 25, 2009
The wording is unequivocal. After investigating the claims (and the de facto regime’s denials) of constant technological and chemical attacks on the diplomatic seat in Tegucigalpa, and illegal impediment of ingress and egress to and from the embassy, where legitimate President Manuel Zelaya and at least 85 aides, supporters and some members of the news media are sheltered, the UN Security Council has concluded that said harassment i s real and it is ongoing.If the coup regime believed that its use of chemical and sonic devices would render its attacks less visible, it has already lost that gamble.

Now that President Zelaya has returned to Honduras, the coup government – after first denying that he was there – has unleashed a wave of repression to prevent people from gathering support for their elected president. This is how U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the first phase of this new repression last night in a press conference:

“I think that the government imposed a curfew, we just learned, to try to get people off the streets so that there couldn't be unforeseen developments.”

Nearly three months after being overthrown by a violent military coup, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras. "I am here in Tegucigalpa. I am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue," he told reporters. The embattled road to his return tested regional diplomacy, challenged Washington and galvanized Honduran social movements.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya reportedly returned Monday to the Central American country, but the defacto government denied his presence amid conflicting reports as to his precise whereabouts.

Enrique Flores Lanza, chief of staff in Zelaya's government, said the ousted president was in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, and Brazilian diplomats told Brazilian news agency Folha Online that he was there.

“This decision is an enormous blow for Israel’s economy and foreign relations”, says Jamal Juma’ of the Stop the Wall Campaign.

The Brazilian Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations and National Defense has recommended that the parliament should not ratify the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Mercosur and the State of Israel until “Israel accepts the creation of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders”.

This decision is an explicit act of pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international law, and a rejection of years of incessant Israeli lobbying, pressuring for a vote to ratify the agreement.

I wouldn’t have stumbled across this one if it weren’t for the interesting headline. The article said “Pilots: Hijacker incoherent during tense standoff” and since I know jews are usually behind any hijackings, I had to take a look. I also know from experience that the people set up to pull off these crazy hoaxes are usually fed tons of psychotropic and recreational drugs before hand by a jewish doctor and drug dealers somewhere, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this headline. One clue is that nobody else seems to hijack aircraft. That’s just plain suicide, and I don’t care what you’ve heard about “hajis”, most people just don’t do stupid shit like this.

The New Great Game is not only focused on the face-off between the United States and strategic competitors Russia and China - with Pipelineistan as a defining element.

The full spectrum dominance doctrine requires the control of the Pentagon-coined "arc of instability" from the Horn of Africa to western China. The cover story is the former "global war on terror", now "overseas contingency operations" under the management of President Barack Obama's administration.

A military agreement between the United States and Columbia has led to widespread concern in South America. Leaders want to know why the United States is trying to increase its military presence in the region. The Colombian government says that having more US troops in the country will help fight drug trafficking and combat terrorism. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, however, ardently opposes these plans. He says that the military bases in Columbia will provoke conflict in Latin America. Venezuelan-American Attorney and Author Eva Golinger joins RT's Dina Gusovsky from Caracas via skype to discuss this matter.

WTimes' Hypocritical Obama-Nazi Slur
By Robert Parry
August 17, 2009
One of the ugly ironies in the Right’s depiction of President Barack Obama as Hitler and health reform as a plan for Nazi-style euthanasia is that the owner of the Washington Times, which has pushed this line of attack, has had longstanding ties with World War II-era Nazis, neo-Nazis and rightist “death squads.”
Indeed, the Washington Times founder and funder, Sun Myung Moon, built his international religious-business-media empire in collaboration with Japanese fascist war criminals and with operational assistance from ex-Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie, the so-called “Butcher of Lyon.”

President Obama is making a big mistake in coddling the dictatorship in Honduras, and putting his administration at odds with the rest of the hemisphere. It also looks terrible to the world that his government so easily abandons its professed commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was overthrown by the military on June 28. Most of Latin America saw this as a threat to democracy in the hemisphere, immediately condemned the coup, and strongly supported Zelaya's return. The Organization of American States as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations called for Zelaya's "immediate and unconditional" return.

'We do not want war, we hate it. But we must prepare for it. We are number one on the list, Venezuela. We are the first target of the (United States). Using Colombia and the bases in Aruba and Curacao, they are surrounding us,' Mr Chavez warned.

Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid the fight the drug trade and combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.

I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.

Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.

Modern humans may impatiently look forward to their robot servants and flying cars of the future, but true lessons about innovation come from the past. And history suggests that making a great leaps forward in science and technology requires much more than lone genius. Cooperation, financing and hard work are at the core of progress.

I got in from a very long, hot and humid day on the highways of a country called América – within tens of hours, health willing, I hope to be reporting from a very interesting place - and I’ve just spent the last while catching up on what happened on the border of Honduras today.

Here’s the short version:

There is a three-ring circus distracting the global media from the authentic struggle – the one waged by the Honduran people, from below – and today none of the ringmasters dressed themselves in glory.

On June 29 US President Barack Obama hosted his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe at the White House and weeks later it was announced that the Pentagon plans to deploy troops to five air and naval bases in Colombia, the largest recipient of American military assistance in Latin America and the third largest in the world, having received over $5 billion from the Pentagon since the launching of Plan Colombia nine years ago.

Six months before the Obama-Uribe meeting outgoing US President George W. Bush bestowed the US's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, on Uribe as well as on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

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.

Secretary Clinton Doesn’t Get the Power of Nonviolence in Honduras
Posted by Al Giordano - July 17, 2009
Secretary Clinton’s remarks yesterday directly contradicted those of the president. Had the Freedom Riders – mentioned by Obama - heeded Clinton’s advice, they never would have boarded their bus, as it was an action that “could lead to violence”:

Yesterday, Microsoft MSN (Spain) featured a montage photo of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the ex president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, wearing king's crowns, accompanied by the colourful title, "When power corrupts: Striving to be kings." The Venezuelan government and a grassroots technology movement here are both promoting the use and creation of open source (free) software, so it's no surprise that software tyrant, Microsoft, is lambasting Chavez.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Israel’s fiercest international critics, will join a future convoy of leftists on a solidarity visit to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to the left-wing British lawmaker and convoy leader George Galloway.

Galloway on Wednesday arrived in Gaza from Egypt, where he joined a group of American activists, including former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney and New York City Democratic Councilman Charles Barron, who had been trying for several days to get Egyptian permission to cross the border.

Ginger Thompson of the New York Times reported from San Jose, Costa Rica Sunday that in organizing the first sessions of a US-brokered mediation exercise between the ousted President Zelaya and the leader of those who overthrew him, Micheletti, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias instructed both men to appear at his residence with just four advisers.

"On Thursday morning, Mr. Micheletti showed up with six, adding an American public relations specialist who has done work for former President Bill Clinton and the American’s interpreter, and an official close to the talks said the team rarely made a move without consulting him," Thompson reported.

It’s Still a Military Coup in Honduras
by Al Giordano - July 12, 2009
...if the military sets the terms for a puppet “civilian government”..., then it is still military rule no matter how you slice it: that of unelected generals and colonels determining their very narrow and authoritarian limits of “government.” Democracy is impossible under those circumstances.
Update II: VTV reports that its journalists and those of TeleSur have been forcibly brought to the airport for expulsion from Honduras. Beyond this latest evidence that the coup is neither democratic nor values press freedom, it is worrisome because it reveals that the coup's next steps are likely so repressive and atrocious that it can't withstand reporting of it to the rest of the world.

Since Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras was forced into exile by the military and supreme court, many of his former cabinet members have fled the country. But for those who have stayed behind the constant threat of arrest by the country's new leadership means they are living in fear. Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar reports from Tegucigalpa.

Via this means of communication I am urging that we continue with the participation of the people, the principal actors in our democracy and in the solutions that there can be to the major problems of poverty and inequality that our nation is experiencing. We Hondurans we have confronted many problems and we have always known how to unite in order to move forward, and this is a great opportunity to demonstrate to the world that we Hondurans are capable of standing up to these problems and advancing, despite the obstacles of this criminal sect that is currently trying to appropriate the fate of our nation and of our sons and daughters....
I am prepared to make any effort, any sacrifice to obtain the freedom that our country needs. Either we are free or we will be permanent slaves, if we lack the valor to defend ourselves!
Do not carry weapons, no weapons! Practice what I have always preached: non-violence. Let them be the ones to bear violence, weapons and repression, and I will make the coup perpetrators responsible for every life, for every person, for the physical integrity of everybody, and for the dignity of the Honduran people....

The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years.

An Apology to Honduras is in Order
JINSA Report #: 905
July 7, 2009
But an apology is in order. Secretary of State Clinton, who plans to meet with former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on behalf of President Obama, should apologize to him and to current Honduran President Roberto Micheletti.
We suggest something like this.
"On behalf of the President of the United States and myself, I apologize for having jumped to the conclusion that events in Honduras last week constituted a military coup.

Since Russia´s president is no longer a drunk, Washington is no longer amused by the country.
Whenever leaders of other countries are either weak or corrupt or ruthless oppressors of their own people, Washington loves them. When they show even the slightest concern for the well-being of their general population, they´ll get on the United States enemy list.

When rallying in the streets of Tegucigalpa for the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Alejandra Fernandez, a 23-year-old university student told a journalist why she supported Zelaya: "He raised the minimum wage, gave out free school lunches, provided milk for the babies and pensions for the elderly, distributed energy-saving light bulbs, decreased the price of public transportation, made more scholarships available for students." Others gathered around to mention the roads and schools in rural areas the president had created.

"That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back," Alejandra explained. "This is really a class struggle."

Is President Obama innocent of the events occurring in Honduras, specifically the coup launched by the Honduran military resulting in the abduction and forced deportation of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya? Obama has denounced the coup and demanded that the rules of democracy be honored. Still, several troubling questions remain.

First, almost all the senior Honduran military officers active in the coup are graduates of the Pentagon’s School of the Americas (known to many of us as “School of the Assassins”). The Honduran military is trained, advised, equipped, indoctrinated, and financed by the United States national security state. The generals would never have dared to move without tacit consent from the White House or the Pentagon and CIA.

There is evidence that the Obama administration was intimately involved in pre-coup plans to oust Zelaya, The New York Times last week cited an unnamed US official as saying that Llorens and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas A. Shannon, Jr. spoke to “military officials and opposition leaders” in the days before the coup...

The real reasons for the coup were Zelaya’s domestic policies and his alliance with Chávez and Chávez’s left nationalist allies in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America, which include Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Elected as the candidate of the bourgeois establishment Liberal Party on a law-and-order platform in 2005, Zelaya had shifted in the intervening years toward populist domestic policies and an alignment with Latin American countries deemed by Washington to be hostile to US interests.

He particularly won the enmity of the Honduran business establishment and its allies in the military, the Church and Congress when he increased the minimum wage by 60 percent and began denouncing the “oligarchy.”

What the Cowardly Honduras Coup Lost Today
by Al Giordano - July 5, 2009 at 9:16 pm
President Manuel Zelaya Showed True Courage: One of the open questions prior to today was whether, threatened with 18 felony charges, including treason, and 20 years in prison (not to mention likely torture and seizure of his considerable properties and business interests), the legitimate president of Honduras would fail to show up for today’s showdown at 2,000 feet over Tegucigalpa.

The schism in both Venezuelan and Iranian societies is very real and is being taken advantage of by the US and friends, who are doing their “best” to engineer a collapse of the populist governments to make room for more US-friendly colour revolutions. But there is too much Yankee baggage for this to work anymore. It is time for a colour revolution at home.

Crossing the Rubicon in Latin America
Honduran Coup: Target Left? July 3-5, 2009
By ROGER BURBACH
The upshot is that a reform-minded president supported by labor unions and social organizations is now pitted against a mafia-like, drug-ridden, corrupt political elite that is accustomed to controlling the Supreme Court, as well as congress and the presidency. It is a story often repeated elsewhere in Latin America, with the United States almost always weighing in on the side of the established, entrenched interests....The Honduran elites were outraged that a member of their class would carry out even modest reforms.

Updated at: 0546 PST, Wednesday, July 01, 2009
TEGUCIGALPA: Honduras' ousted president won overwhelming international support Tuesday as he planned a high-profile return to his chaotic country. The politicians who sent soldiers to fly him into exile in his pajamas said he will be arrested for treason if he tries.
...

Viewed from a distance, the streets of Honduras look, smell and sound like those of Iran: expressions of popular anger - burning vehicles, large marches and calls for justice in a non-English language - aimed at a constitutional violation of the people's will (the coup took place on the eve of a poll of voters asking if the President's term should be extended); protests repressed by a small, but powerful elite backed by military force; those holding power trying to cut off communications in and out of the country.

These and other similarities between the political situation in Iran and the situation in Honduras, where military and economic and political elites ousted democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya in a military coup condemned around the world, are obvious.

Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran President has been Kidnapped: Updates 1-17
June 28th 2009, by Eva Golinger
Honduras is a nation that has been the victim of dictatorships and massive U.S. intervention during the past century, including several military invasions. The last major U.S. government intervention in Honduras occured during the 1980s, when the Reagain Administration funded death squads and paramilitaries to eliminate any potential "communist threats" in Central America. At the time, John Negroponte, was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras and was responsible for directly funding and training Honduran death squads that were responsable for thousands of disappeared and assassinated throughout the region.

"This bank will be able to genuinely act as the foundation of future cooperation between Russia and Venezuela," said Pankin in a press conference on Tuesday.

Images reveal full horror of 'Amazon's Tiananmen'

Peru accused of cover-up after indigenous protest ends in death at Devil's Bend

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Friday, 19 June 2009

Havana. June 11, 2009
And when will Miami’s terrorist nest be cleared out?
JEAN-GUY ALLARD
• DESPITE being denounced and calls from Venezuela for his extradition, Luis Posada Carriles, the most dangerous terrorist in the hemisphere, is still conspiring to murder with his accomplices without any intervention from the U.S. legal authorities.
Miami continues to have a strong nucleus of right extremists from various Latin American countries, who consider this city and the United States as a sanctuary for their activities, given that hundreds of fugitives, presidents and henchmen of dictatorial regimes have found a safe refuge there over the years.