A coup for lobbyists at the White House

A coup for lobbyists at the White House
Saturday, August 8, 2009 11:08 PM CDT

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in the middle of the night just over a month ago, enjoys global support for his return, with the exception of the Obama White House. While Barack Obama first called the Honduran military's removal of Zelaya a coup, his administration has backpedaled. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya's attempt to cross the Nicaraguan border into Honduras "reckless." Could well-placed lobbyists in Washington be forging U.S. foreign policy?

Lanny Davis was special counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998, functioning as lawyer, crisis manager and spokesman through Clinton's various scandals. Davis has developed a lucrative specialty as a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, offering a "unique 'Legal Crisis Communications' practice," helping people embroiled in investigations or scandal. According to recent congressional filings, Davis is lobbying for the Honduran chapter of the Latin American Business Council. Zelaya had recently increased the Honduran minimum wage.

Davis testified before Congress on July 10, saying his clients "believe the best chance for a solution is the dialogue between Mr. Zelaya and President Micheletti, mediated by President Arias, that is now ongoing in Costa Rica." That is, until the Arias sessions resulted in a call for the return of Zelaya. Coup spokesman Cesar Caceres said, "The mediation has been declared a failure."

Davis continued before Congress, "No one wants bloodshed, and nobody should be inciting violence." Yet a number of Zelaya supporters have been killed, and there has been a crackdown on independent media, making information hard to obtain.

More:
http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/08/08/opinions/guest_columns/29268288.txt

still talking about talking about Zelaya being reinstated?

Recommend.

but Micheletti, the coup President said he absolutely wouldn't talk to the Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, because he supports the idea of returning Zelaya to his office A.S.A.P., awarding impugnity to the coup operators, and moving onward to the national elections in November.

As it is now, the elections are in peril, as they would be overseen by a group of illegal officials, which is a completely tawdry picture. Ordinarily, when the elections run as planned, they have time to set up arrangements with the ELECTED President of the country, and the international observers are able to get everything in place well in advance. That's not happening now.

We need to get the holdover Reagan/Bush Iran/Contra creeps out of our State Department, since we don't want them molding Democratic foreign policy. When we are free of these vampires, and cowboys, only then can we have a healthy, intelligent policy. Right now, we are austensibly condemning this violent coup, but underneath funding continues to pour into Honduras through several U.S. sponsored programs. On the surface we withdrew their official visas, but under that we allowed them to keep their personal visas. That's why some representatives of the coup are also in Washington, trying to win over politicians here today.

It looks as if the coup leaders think they're going to simply squat in the President's chair until the elections, but if the people can't expect to have access to safe, clean, trustworthy elections at the designated time, there's a HUGE problem looming.

This would mean more months of violence and oppression, and that's not good for the people, although clearly it's no problem for creepy squishy, soft little officials like the coup masters who seized the Presidency and have ordered the military and the national police to terrorize the people into submission.

http://www.straitstimes.com.nyud.net:8090/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090710/micheletti-reuters.jpg http://www.laprensahn.com.nyud.net:8090/var/laprensa_site/storage/images/ediciones/2008/07/25/multimedia/roberto-micheletti-bain-presidente-del-congreso-nacional-de-honduras.-congreso-no-firmara-convenio-del-alba/13866-1-esl-HN/Roberto-Micheletti-Bain-presidente-del-Congreso-Nacional-de-Honduras.-Congreso-no-firmara-convenio-del-Alba_noticia_full.jpg

Coup president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti

Lanny Davis is running interference to give the golpistas enough time to rig the election.

EGG-ZACKLY what I was thinking!