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| 5/25 |
| 2009/6/30-7/15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:53100 Activity:nil |
6/30 It appears that the coup in Honduras was ordered by the court and
the congress to head off an illegal constitutional refferendum by
the prez to make himself dictator for life. So, why does the Obama
administration oppose this? Am I missing something?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_referendum
\_ Because he was still legally president at the time. Illegal
referendum = court throws it out and president may well be
impeached. It doesn't mean the millitary comes in and kicks
out the sitting president. A coup is not rule of law.
\_ Since the prez lead a mob to attack the military installation
holding the ballots, I think he was pretty much already starting
his own coup. Directly throwing him out may not have been
the perfectly legal solution, but it certainly makes sense
given the circumstances.
\_ The Journal is a Murdoch tool, especialy the Opinion section.
\_ And the AP article? (That's why I posted both.)
\_http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/09/phone-hacking-inquiries
Murdoch is having his papers tap the phones of opposition
politians in Britian. Think he isn't doing the same here? |
| 5/25 |
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| online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html This service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance. The username entered is already associated with another account. Please enter a different username The email address you have entered is already in use. larger Hugo Chvez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground. Associated Press That Mr Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress. But Mr Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr Chvez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do. Romeo Vsquez Velsquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order. The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica. It remains to be seen what Mr Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office. For Hondurans who still remember military dictatorship, Mr Zelaya also has another strike against him: He keeps rotten company. Earlier this month he hosted an OAS general assembly and led the effort, along side OAS Secretary General Jos Miguel Insulza, to bring Cuba back into the supposedly democratic organization. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove." A less-kind interpretation of Mr Insulza's judgment is that he doesn't mind the Chvez-style coup. The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs Clinton and Mr Insulza expose their true colors. com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A12 Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Manage Email preferences About Mary Anastasia O'Grady Mary Anastasia O'Grady is a member of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and editor of the "Americas," a weekly column that appears every Monday in the Journal and deals with politics, economics and business in Latin America and Canada. Ms O'Grady joined the paper in August 1995 and became a senior editorial page writer in December 1999. She previously worked as an options strategist, first for Advest Inc. in 1984 as an options strategist and was also a product manager and a sales manager for Merrill Lynch Canada and Merrill Lynch International during her 10 years with the company. In 1997 Ms O'Grady won the Inter American Press Association's Daily Gleaner Award for editorial commentary, and in 1999 she received an honorable mention in IAPA's opinion award category. In 2005 she won the Bastiat Prize for journalism, which honors writers who promote the institutions of a free society. The Journal Community encourages thoughtful dialogue and meaningful connections between real people. We require the use of your full name to authenticate your identity. The quality of conversations can deteriorate when real identities are not provided. |
| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_referendum A military vehicle patrols the area around the presidential residency in AP - A military vehicle patrols the area around the presidential residency in Tegucigalpa, Sunday June 28, ... KVUE-TV Austin By WILL WEISSERT and FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writers Will Weissert And Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press Writers - Sun Jun 28, 6:01 pm ET TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras on Sunday and Congress named a successor, but the leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced what he called an illegal coup and vowed to stay in power. The first military takeover of a Central American government in 16 years drew widespread condemnation from governments in Latin America and the world, and Chavez vowed to overthrow the country's apparent new leader. President Manuel Zelaya was awakened Sunday by gunfire and detained while still in his pajamas, hours before an unpopular constitutional referendum many saw as a power grab. An air force plane flew him into forced exile in Costa Rica as armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace. "I want to return to my country," Zelaya said in Costa Rica. Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even Zelaya's former allies turning against him. Congressional leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in to serve until Jan. Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president in the referendum. "My slogan will be the reconciliation of the grand family of Hondurans ... and a grand national dialogue," Micheletti said after Congress gave the military a long standing ovation. Zelaya denied resigning and insisted he would serve out his term, even as the Supreme Court backed the military takeover and said it was a defense of democracy. His ouster came hours before polls were to open on a constitutional referendum that Zelaya was pushing ahead even after the Supreme Court and the attorney general said it was illegal. The constitution bars changes to some of its clauses, such as the ban on a president serving more than one term, they said. Some businesses in the capital, Tegucigalpa, closed earlier this week amid the rising tension, and many speculated there would be a coup. Those who opposed the referendum warned against voting, fearing violence at the polls. Countries throughout Latin America and the world condemned Zelaya's expulsion, and Chavez said before Micheletti was sworn in that if he was appointed president, "we will overthrow him." Chavez said Venezuela "is at battle" and put his military on alert. In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez vowed to work with allies to push for Zelaya's return to power. He said Cuban Ambassador Juan Carlos Hernandez was held briefly in Tegucigalpa after he and other foreign diplomats tried unsuccessfully to prevent soldiers from taking away Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas. Chavez said troops in Honduras temporarily detained the Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors and beat them. President Barack Obama said he was "deeply concerned" and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned. "I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama's statement read. Coups were common in Central America for four decades reaching back to the 1950s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez. It was the first in Central America since military officials forced President Jorge Serrano of Guatemala to step down in 1993 after he tried to dissolve Congress and suspend the constitution. "We thought that the long night of military dictatorships in Central America was over," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who sat beside Zelaya at a news conference. Zelaya told the Venezuela-based Telesur network that he was awoken by gunshots and the shouts of his security guards, who he said resisted troops for at least 20 minutes. Still in his pajamas, he jumped out of bed and ducked behind an air conditioner to avoid the bullets, he said. He said eight to 10 soldiers in masks escorted him onto an air force plane that took him to Costa Rica. Zelaya said he would attend a scheduled meeting of Central American presidents in Nicaragua on Monday and that Chavez, who also plans to attend, would provide transportation. Zelaya called on Honduran soldiers to back him, urged citizens to take to the streets in peaceful protests, and asked Honduran police to protect demonstrators. About 100 supporters congregated in front of locked gates outside the national palace, where they hurled rocks at soldiers and shouted "Traitors! "They kidnapped him like cowards," screamed Melissa Gaitan. Tears streamed down the face of the 21-year-old, who works at the government television station. The vote did not take place on the referendum, which asked whether another vote should be held on convoking an assembly to rewrite the constitution. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. |
| www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/09/phone-hacking-inquiries News International was facing three fresh inquiries into the conduct of its journalists and executives following the Guardian's disclosures that Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire paid 1m to keep secret the use of criminal methods to get stories. News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed for obtaining information illegally. A powerful Commons select committee said it would be calling senior managers from News International to give evidence as early as next week to clarify what they knew about malpractice by journalists at the News of the World. Andy Coulson, the former editor of the paper and now the Conservative party's director of communications, will be asked to appear. He has always denied he knew reporters working for him had hacked into the mobile phones of politicians and celebrities. The Press Complaints Commission also announced it was conducting an inquiry. At Westminster, senior Labour figures continued to call for Coulson to resign and the prime minister said that there were "serious questions" to answer. Gordon Brown was responding after the Guardian revealed that News Group, the publishers of the News of the World, had made the 1m payout to secure secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of journalists using private investigators to illegally hack into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures. It is also alleged journalists gained unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and phone bills. The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, Gordon Taylor, last year received 700,000 from News International in compensation and legal costs, and agreed not to discuss the case. However, hundreds of other public figures may also have been targeted. Among them were the celebrity publicist Max Clifford and TV presenter Vanessa Feltz. The Met's assistant commissioner John Yates said Scotland Yard would not be reopening its files because no new evidence had come to light and the original inquiry had concluded phone tapping had occurred in only a minority of cases. That decision was criticised later when John Prescott, one of those whose phone was allegedly hacked, told the BBC's Newsnight "serious questions had to be answered" despite Yates's statement. "Frankly he has come out, he has defined in a very narrow way what he is going to look at, and then gives a report that everything is OK," he said. Legal experts said the Yard's decision would not affect the ability of alleged hacking victims to sue for breach of privacy. Rebekah Wade, the outgoing Sun editor who has been promoted to News International chief executive; Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World's outgoing managing editor; and Les Hinton, the former chairman of News International. John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said he was particularly keen to question Hinton, who told a previous hearing Goodman had been acting alone. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, was forced to defend Coulson, but Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, last night insisted that Coulson should lose his job. newspapers to breach people's privacy with no justification. That is why Andy Coulson resigned as editor two and a half years ago. Of course I knew about that resignation before offering him the job. As director of communications for the Conservatives he does an excellent job in a proper, upright way." The Tories also pointed to Scotland Yard's decision not to reopen its inquiry. police inquiry into Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who was also jailed. I have ordered an urgent examination of the material supplied to the CPS by the police," he said. He was taking this action "to satisfy myself and assure the public that the appropriate actions were taken". He said the evidence was extensive and complex, "but it has all been located and a small team is rapidly working through it ... News International broke its silence last night, but did not address the specific allegations made by the Guardian, saying: "News International is prevented by confidentiality obligations from discussing allegations made in the Guardian newspaper." It said its journalists had complied with relevant legislation and codes of conduct since February 2007, after the Goodman case and Coulson's resignation. Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of the Guardian, said: "We note that News International has not contested any part of the Guardian coverage - including the central assertion that the company had paid a record 1m to ensure secrecy over damages paid to victims of illegal phone-hacking." |