Honduras: Clinton vs. Clinton
By Al Giordano
Authentic journalist Bill Conroy and I have filed a new report about how an important US agency that keeps funding the Honduras coup regime isn't obeying what the US State Department says it should do to put aid to the coup on pause:
US State Department and Millennium Challenge Corp. Contradict Each Other Over Honduras Coup Aid:
Maybe somebody should get the US Secretary of State to sit down with the chairman of Millennium Challenge Corporation and get the two US agencies on the same page. Let’s see, the Secretary is Hillary Clinton… and the MCC chairman is… Hillary Clinton! Gee, could somebody please get those two in the same room to get this matter straightened out?...
Hey, let’s get Secretary Hillary Clinton to sit at the same table with Chairman Hillary Clinton and see whether a little “diplomacy” might get the two of them to agree with each other to make US policy’s deeds match its words. Or maybe they could call each other at 3 a.m. on the red phone. But, really, how seriously is Latin America supposed to take the US government if Clinton can’t even come to agreement with herself?
And wait 'til you see, in our report tomorrow, where those US taxpayer funds are going...
Update: While we're posting the latest update to the saga of the State Department and its Millennium Challenge Corporation's continued funding of the Honduras coup regime, here's a revealing video of Tuesday's anti-coup demonstration in Tegucigalpa:
It's revealing because it directly contradicts the dishonest media reports of "hoards" attacking fast food restaurants. You can see in the video that the crowd vastly outnumbers the military and police that are flanking it, and right there behind the stage is a McDonald's franchise.
The people aren't attacking it. They're singing the National Anthem, which remembers the struggle for independence from colonial rule:
"You also, oh my country!, arose
From your servile deep sleep;
You also showed the world
The infamous shackle destroyed.
And in your blessed soil, behind the tall
Hair of the wild jungle,
Like a bird of black feathers,
The fleeting colony was lost..."
Then, the speaker on the stage asks the crowd "is this a peaceful demonstration?" and the people cheer and raise their fists in agreement.
That nearby McDonald's wasn't among the multinational franchises attacked on Tuesday. Those incidents happened away from the vast majority of marchers, at places where the anti-coup movement's leadership didn't have any presence. The video offers a much more authentic sense of the pacific nature of the anti-coup civil resistance than unfortunately is offered by so much of the commercial media.
Update II: And here's the latest from Conroy and I, documenting that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's funds are going to a high profile coup plotter and presidential candidate in Honduras:
Coming up next: Narco News correspondent Belén Fernández sat in this morning on a meeting between members of a human rights delegation and US Ambassador Hugo Llorens in Tegucigalpa, took twenty pages of notes, and will have a report for us shortly...
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Colombia used US surveillance eqpmt to spy on InterAmerican HR
Submitted on August 14th, 2009 by El Cid (not verified)Colombia's massive and therefore completely invisible in the U.S. illegal electronic spying scandal now extends to spying on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR / or CIDH in Spanish acronym).
It's not enough that 5 former heads of the DAS (Department of Administrative Security, sort of DHS / FBI / Military Intel combo) are under arrest, one of them the former campaign manager of President Alvaro Uribe (Jorge Noguera) now accused of directly facilitating paramilitary assassinations of union organizers and academics via this spying using U.S. provided electronic surveillance equipment; it's not enough that the DAS spied on journalists, the Supreme Court, prosecutors, Colombian human rights workers, businessmen, teachers, and anyone that the conservative Colombian regime thought perhaps a tad too critical...
Now they've been busted for spying on an international human rights body, celebrating 50 years of service:
IACHR EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS RELATED TO INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ACTIVITIES IN COLOMBIA
Washington, D.C., August 13, 2009 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expresses its deep concern regarding information that has recently come to light about Colombian intelligence operations targeting the IACHR.
According to the information received by the Commission, a Special Strategic Intelligence Group (“G3”) within Colombia’s Administrative Security Department (DAS) was created to monitor activities tied to the litigation of cases at the international level. The G3 allegedly carried out an intelligence operation against an IACHR visit to the city of Valledupar in 2005, led by then Commissioner and Rapporteur for Colombia Susana Villarán. According to the DAS file, the objective of this operation was “to identify the cases being studied by the Rapporteur and the testimony presented by nongovernmental organizations, as well as the lobbying these organizations are doing to pressure for a condemnation of the State.”
These intelligence activities violate the State’s commitment to respect the privileges and immunities of representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) and to comply in good faith with the aim and purpose of the American Convention on Human Rights and other treaties of the inter-American system.
These operations also seriously affect the work of human rights defenders in Colombia. The Commission has repeatedly expressed concern about the situation of defenders in that country, especially about accusations made by high-level officials that the defenders belong to guerrilla movements, and the use of intelligence mechanisms to monitor their activities. The Commission has indicated that States should refrain from any type of arbitrary or abusive interference in defenders’ correspondence or telephone and electronic communications, and that they should impose disciplinary and criminal sanctions on those who engage in such practices.
On July 16, 2009, the IACHR requested detailed information from the State of Colombia on all intelligence operations carried out with respect to the IACHR, the destination and use of the reports, and the investigations of the matter carried out by the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Nation and the Office of the Attorney General. In its reply, the State condemned the illegal activities of this intelligence organization, which answers to the executive branch, and stressed its commitment to turn it into a “reliable and transparent” entity. The State also offered to facilitate channels so the Commission can have access to information on the progress of the investigation.
The Inter-American Commission took note of this response and urges the Government of Colombia not only to identify those responsible but also to conduct a thorough review of State intelligence agencies to ensure that these do not contravene international statutes for the protection of human rights. The Commission has also formally presented this information to the OAS Permanent Council and the Secretary General, so that any appropriate measures may be adopted.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this matter. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.
http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English
/2009/59-09eng.htm
See? The Colombian government said, 'oops', and 'we won't do it again', and 'rogue agency', and, poof, there's no reason for the U.S. media to cover it and instead they have to go scream about repression in Venezuela.
Thanks (Falimenderit) Again Al & Friends...
Submitted on August 14th, 2009 by Brian Curdy (not verified)Al & all,
Just thought I would mention again how much I appreciate the hard work and incisive comments.
I can't do much in the money contributions department for the time being because of being strapped-but since "complaining" is a waste of time, (please) let me "brag" a little.
I'm a volunteer (unpaid) social worker and hospice nurse in...Switzerland. Your typical Joe Schmuck on nobody's "VIP" list.
US President Obama has been cordially invited (on his e-mail the President site) to take notice of the existence, content, and world distribution of this page-your article....by silly old me.) Your reporting is regularly discussed in French and in Italian in this part of the world....
I also took advantage of some past associations (as a retired and disabled USMC officer and USNA Grad) to call attention to a ( an American) corporation lawyer friend-and another (lawyer) who is an authority on US Constitutional law....as well as other people who might really find this (really, I mean,) interesting.
I doubt that Ivan will give me credit for being imaginative or creative-but it is fun to watch people beat on that barrel of his with the baseball bat I left on the ground...
Falimenderit (thankyou in Albanian),
Brian....
A Day of Reckoning in Hondurus
Submitted on August 14th, 2009 by Nancy ChesterHere's another authentic journalist pro resistance report on Hondurus by Tom Loudon.
http://alainet.org/active/32305&lang=es
The manifestations on Tuesday, August 11, will surpass all previous concentrations. In an amazing reversal of fortunes, the violent coup has unleashed a torrent of non-violent protest that is uncontainable. In what has surely become a nightmare for the coup leaders, the people of Honduras are no longer afraid. They are pouring into streets and plazas; they walk for days, going without food or a place to sleep and they risk their lives. They are calling for restoration of democracy, and end to impunity, Constitutional reform and economic justice. The people of Honduras are making a new history, without violence and without fear.
@ Brian Curdy
Submitted on August 15th, 2009 by Lorie CavinThanks for your comment. Thanks for what you do as a volunteer. What you are doing, is what I do for part of my living. You are on my "VIP" list. At the present time, I care for an attorney with MS. I am a trained paralegal, and the US job market for an "older worker" that needs to work, calls for creativity.
I am very interested in off-blog conversation with you, if you would like. E-mail Al, and he can forward to me.
For all you do,
Falimenderit
Lorie