From the indefatigable Keane Bhatt, who also did this great interview with Chomsky in December, the ugly truth about golpista gusano Jose Cardenas (Roger Noriega's pal) posing as a journalist:The Miami Herald Offers Free Publicity to Rightwing Lobbyist Jose Cardenas (on Bhatt's NACLA blog, Manufacturing Contempt).

January 9, 2013

Dear Friend,

LEGISLATIVE ACTION NEEDED! Contact the Foreign Policy Staffer in the Washington DC Office of Your Representative!

On Monday, January 07, 2013, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) circulated a House sign-on "Dear Colleague" letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Holder addressing ongoing human rights violations against Afro-indigenous communities in Honduras.

The letter highlights the need for full accountability in the 11 May 2012 murders of four Afro-indigenous civilians in a violent U.S. drug raid gone wrong in Ahuas, Honduras. Days after the killings, the Honduras Accompaniment Project traveled to Ahuas with COFADEH to provide protective accompaniment for their human rights mission investigating this attack.

The letter also calls for "a review on the implementation of counternarcotics operations carried out by our government in Honduras". The four initial signers - Rep Johnson (D-GA), Conyers (D-MI), Meeks (D-NY), and Bass (D-CA) - are all members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Please call the foreign policy aide in your Rep's DC office. The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 224- 3121

(To identify your rep, go to the website below and type your zip code - in the upper right corner): http://www.house.gov/representatives

Thanks to Mary Dean for forwarding these links:

• Colombia: Honduras uncooperative in hooker probe
• Honduras police seize $61,400 golden, bejeweled AK-47

I'm sorry to see some allies within the NPIC succumb to this dangerous nonsense. Once again: Honduran lack of democracy does not stem from a lack of technology. It stems, recently, from a USG (and USAID)-supported 2009 coup d'etát, and from U.S. pro-corporate economic and military colonization favoring the concentration of national power into a very few oligarchic hands.

Click for PDF versions in English and Spanish of the Honduras Solidarity Network letter to the World Bank protesting continued funding of Miguel Facusse's Dinant Corporation despite involvement in the June 2009 coup and ongoing human rights violations.

It's that time of year when I'm supposed to take an inventory of my various media and public speaking appearances. This year has of course been a banner year for me and the media thanks to my decision to use my first amendment rights to refuse victimization at the hands of unethical journalists. Leaving aside that whole unfortunate episode, here are some of the appearances I haven't posted previously here (more to follow):

An AAA panel on militarism that I participated in along with David Vine, Catherine Besteman, Hugh Gusterson, David Price, and Roberto González:

From a couple weeks ago. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere and golpista propagandist for the Obama administration Frank Mora is stepping down from his Pentagon post to head Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center, home of SOUTHCOM's very own academic departments focused on providing academic legitimation for the U.S. military occupation of the rest of the hemisphere. Keep up the great work, FIU.

Increase in murders of women in Honduras
Prensa Latina (translation from Greg McCain)

The crime statistics show that this year the murders of women increased by 30 percent compared to the 512 reported in 2011, said Visitación Padilla, coordinator of the Committee of Women for Peace, . More than 480 females were killed through to August, but none of these cases was clarified by the prosecution, she added.

See this post for Sukarieh's previous five CounterPunch articles. Here are the most recent ones:

• December 24, 2012: IMF Policies with a Beard on Them: What Egyptians Say About Their Referendum
• Weekend Edition December 14-16, 2012: More From the Egyptian Counter-Revolution: At the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sit-In