‘A Fourth Reich in the Sun?’

21st Century Wire TV Episode 1

Golden Dawn Immigrants-Fake NeoNazi’s

All those links were sent to me on Twitter and I am more than glad to post them,I do beleive I will find more on those people due time.No threats allowed according to the WP policy or the HR declaration. So please stay vigilant of what you are going to post :)I checked all blog categories so that the post can get the most views possible. Regards!

“##Spiros Macrozonaris## IMMIGRANT Golden Dawn Deputy leader in Montreal, Canada” :

Facebook profile :

INTERESTING FACEBOOK POST MR. MACROZONARIS, HE CANNOT EVEN WRITE GREEK! BAD NAZI BAD! :

His NON 100% PURE GREEK son’s Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/macrozonaris?ref=ts&fref=ts

1. Greek Immigrant who married a “foreigner” >>>>>French-Canadian Doris Morrissette, they bore a son, Nicolas Macrozonaris (World-Class Sprinter – CANADIAN Olympian 🙂 ..who unfortunately is not 100% Pure Greek…

2. Conversations with Nicolas on Twitter, lead to nothing, he is ‘pretending’ that he has NO knowledge of what Golden Dawn supports and believes YET he states that he does not condone his fathers “actions”

Twitter @Macrozonaris TWEETER CONVERSATIONS with Nicolas –>

###### MUST WATCH #####
Video from CBC Montreal, from week of Oct 12th – INTERVIEW with Spiros Macrozonaris – next to him sits LOOSER Ilias Hondronicolas : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3rbLI4K78

#Ilias Hondronicolas ———> on PHOTO second guy from the left :

#MORE HONDRONICOLAS:

(FRIENDS WITH ELENI ZAROULIA SHARING HER PHOTOS!)
( MUST SEE )

#MORE PAPAGEORGIOU:

Mutant Avian flu: Expanding global vaccine production

 Allow me to add a personal note here .Right now I am writing I am recovering from the H5N1 flu,so is my family. It’s not a joy ride i can reassure you,i still feel my muscles stiff and my bones about to crack in pieces. BUT we took NO antibiotics,NO VACCINES- this is a is a must-not-do for my family-,nothing.  We had poor luck with all those “lethal” viruses so we got them all,Swine flu in 2009 and again the mutant swine flu last year[2011].WE didn’t die. Of course none of us belongs to the high risk groups. Yet we took a slight taste of pneumonia and other complications like otitis

I can not advise you if you belong to a high risk population group. But if you do not,just take some basic precautions and it will pass. We “survived” of five flu attacks with no harm done . You don’t need any killing Tamiflu or any vaccine that will make you more vulnerable to diseases

A friend of mine,a doctor,he said to me when i asked” you cannot predict a virus when it is bombed with antibiotics,the most possible to happen is to face new,mutant strains,resistant to known drugs”

And when i asked in return,why the Pharma industry doesn’t adapt their antibiotics to the new shown strains,he answered” if they did so,they would never claim a Pandemic“…

the rest is known..

21 June 2012

The H5N1 ‘bird flu’ virus could evolve to spread through the air between ferrets by picking up as few as five mutations, according to a long-awaited study from Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands¹. The paper is published today in Science after months of debate about whether the benefits of publishing the research outweighed the risks.

H5N1 can cause lethal infections in humans but it cannot spread effectively from person to person. Fouchier’s paper is the second of two publications describing how the virus could evolve this ability. The first, from Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, involved a hybrid virus with genes from both H5N1 and the H1N1 strain behind the 2009 pandemic² (see ‘Mutant-flu paper published‘). Fouchier’s mutant contains only H5N1 genes.

“Coming after the Kawaoka manuscript, I thought it might be anti-climactic, but it does not fail to deliver,” says Vincent Racaniello, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.

There is only one common mutation in the combinations that Fouchier and Kawaoka identified. “It just means that there are multiple ways to skin a cat,” says Robert Webster, a virologist at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Despite their differences, both sets of mutations confer similar properties on H5N1. Some mutations allow the haemagglutinin (HA) protein on the virus’s surface to stick to the kind of receptors found in the human upper airway. Others stabilize the protein, an unexpected property that now seems to be important for transmission among mammals. “Two very different strategies led to common functional changes,” says Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, who notes that these changes are “not uncommon in field strains already”.

Fouchier now wants to know whether these traits could make any flu virus go airborne, and whether previous pandemics started in this way. “The virus could evolve in a thousand different ways,” he says. “But if we can show that any receptor-binding mutations, or any that change the stability of HA, can yield airborne viruses, the story becomes completely different. We can then do surveillance for mutations that cause the same phenotype.”

Fouchier’s team began by adding three mutations to an H5N1 strain isolated from Indonesia in 2005. Two of these — Q222L and G224S — changed the HA gene such that its protein preferentially sticks to human-type receptors over those found in bird cells. The third — E627K — changed the PB2 gene, which is involved in copying the virus’ genetic material, so that the virus was able to replicate more easily in the cooler environment of mammalian cells.

The team allowed this mutant virus to evolve naturally by passing it from one ferret to the next, injecting it into the animals’ noses and collecting samples daily for four days. After ten rounds, the virus could spread between ferrets housed in separate cages.

These airborne strains spread less effectively than the 2009 H1N1 virus, and are sensitive to current antiviral treatments and potential vaccines. They are lethal if delivered directly to the ferrets’ airways in high doses, but not if the animals catch the infections naturally through the air.

Fouchier’s airborne viruses carried a diverse array of mutations, with just five mutations shared by them all, including the original three that Fouchier had inserted and two more in the HA gene: T156A, which affects receptor binding, and H103Y, which stabilizes the protein. The five mutations might be enough for H5N1 to spread between ferrets, but it may take nine or even more. “Until the changes are introduced in combinations into H5N1 virus, we won’t know the answer,” says Racaniello.

In a related paper published in Science³, Derek Smith from the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues has shown that wild H5N1 viruses already have many of the mutations that Fouchier and Kawaoka identified. Some of the viruses are two to four nucleotide substitutions away from the complete sets. However, whether those mutations would allow different strains of H5N1 to spread between ferrets, let alone humans, remains unclear.

Fouchier now wants to work out the number of other individuals who catch the airborne virus for everyone who is infected. This number “needs to be higher than 1 to cause a pandemic”, he says. “We need more quantitative transmission models to start addressing that.”

But Racaniello thinks a different approach would be more effective. “I suggest that we spend research money developing more flu antivirals, and a universal flu vaccine,” he says[Source]

Will Tamiflu save the world from the avian flu?

No one wants to catch the flu! At the very least, it will put you out of commission for a week, and it can also cause  life-threatening infections – pneumonia is the most common, although other bacterial diseases like bronchitis are common too. Most people don’t think about problems with secondary infections after catching the flu, but a deadly form of the flu could be just around the corner.

The H5N1 “avian” flu is highly deadly among birds, and it has occurred in humans. Most people who contract the avian flu have had direct contact with infected birds. Fortunately, H5N1 does not appear to spread from human to human, but what if mutations occur in the virus that allow this to happen?

The 2009 H1N1 “swine” flu reminded us of the potential for flu pandemics that cross over to humans from other animals.

Based on its severity in birds and in the humans who have been infected, an H5N1 pandemic could be far more deadly than the H1N1 pandemic; it could kill a significant percentage of the world’s population! For example, in the 1918 flu pandemic, about 5% of the world’s population died. Based on the virulence of H5N1 in birds, it’s predicted that a higher percentage of humans would die as a result of a H5N1 human pandemic, although this is, of course, conjecture. In support of this conjecture, however, is the fact that 63% of the humans who have been infected with H5N1 have died (Hurt et al.).

Antiviral compounds

Fortunately Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and a related drug, Relenza (Zanamivir), reduce the severity of the flu if they are given when the flu symptoms initially appear. But will the drugs be effective forever?

Seventy years ago, antibiotics such as penicillin seemed like miracle drugs. But now bacteria are evolving to become resistant to antibiotics, in part because the antibiotics have been overprescribed. Could the same thing occur with antivirals as they become used more frequently? It is a possibility.

Mutations, changes in the genetic code of an organism, occur rapidly in the influenza virus. Most mutations are harmful to the virus, but a few are beneficial (and, therefore, potentially harmful to humans). A mutation could occur in an influenza virus that allows it to resist the effects of Tamiflu and Relenza. Such a virus would then grow much more rapidly than a nonresistant form in the presence of the drugs.

To understand how Tamilflu and Relenza function and how the virus might become resistant to them, we need a little background on the life cycle of the flu virus. When an unsuspecting victim inhales a flu virus, a protein on the surface of the virus called hemagglutinin (the ‘H’ in H1N1, for example) binds to a receptor called sialic acid on the surface of cells in the respiratory tract (see structure of sialic acid in picture above).

Influenza life cycle

The cell takes in the virus, which then replicates inside the host cell. The newly formed viruses leave the cell by budding off the surface. The hemagglutinin on the new viruses can then bind to the sialic acid on the surface of other host cells, thus infecting new cells. For this to occur, however, the viruses need to escape the host cells. Another viral surface protein, neuraminidase (the ‘N’ in H1N1, for example), breaks down the sialic acid receptors so the viruses can escape.

Tamiflu and Relenza are structurally similar to sialic acid and will bind to the neuraminidase, but they cannot be broken down. Therefore, neuraminidase cannot bind to sialic acid on the cell surface when it has Tamiflu or Relenza bound to it. Because they prevent neuraminidase from functioning, the two drugs are collectively referred to as neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs). When NAIs are present, some of the newly produced virus will get stuck to the original host cell and will not be able to infect other cells.  Some viruses will still escape, so NAIs don’t cure the flu but rather reduce its severity.

Are NAI-resistant viral mutants forming? Studies have identified a few flu viruses that are resistant to these drugs. A very dedicated (and patient) group of scientists (Monto et al.) grew up a whopping 2287 samples of flu virus that were collected from all over the world during the first three years (1999-2002) the drugs were prescribed. They grew these samples in the presence of each of the two NAIs. While the vast majority of the viruses were not resistant to the drugs, a few samples were. Resistance was determined by measuring the concentration of the drug needed to inactivate each virus. These results were concerning; however, another team of scientists (Yen et al.) studied two NAI-resistant flu mutants and found that they were not as contagious nor as fit as the non-resistant strains.

Ferrets used in nasal washes

Yen et al. (2005) also showed that the virus didn’t grow as well in vitro, and they measured how well the virus grew in an in vivo model. In those studies, three ferrets were infected with the virus: two with the mutant strains and one with a wild type (not mutated) virus.

After two days, each ferret was put into close contact with two other ferrets. Each day after exposure, the researchers took nasal washes of each ferret and quantified the amount of virus in the wash. (I wonder if there is a neti pot for ferrets.)

Net pot for sinus infection

The washes showed that less virus was produced by the two resistant mutants. In fact, one of the ferrets exposed to a mutant virus was less contagious. Other studies have found this to be the case with the most resistant flu virus mutants. That is, the more resistant the flu virus is to an NAI, the less virulent is the virus.

However, exceptions were found in a further study by Yen et al. in 2006, where they found two mutants that were resistant to the drugs but still grew relatively well, which is more concerning. While these mutants did not appear naturally (they were designed by the lab) they could, in principle, occur in nature.

None of these studies looked at the H5N1 avian flu directly, but because the drug-resistant viruses were found over a wide variety of strains, there is potential for an H5N1 mutant that is resistant to Tamiflu and Relenza. Fortunately the drug-resistant mutants are usually less fit, so an H5N1 NAI-resistant mutant might not be as deadly. It appears that Tamiflu and Relenza would help reduce the impact of an H5N1 pandemic. However, we must monitor the virus for resistant mutants.

References:

Silver, G. (2003) The treatment of influenza with antiviral drugs. Canadian Medical Association Journal 168 (1), 49–57.

Monto, A., McKimm-Breschkin, J., Macken, C., Hampson, A., Hay, A., Klimov, A., Tashiro, M., Webster, R., Aymard, M., Hayden, F., & Zambon, M. (2006). Detection of Influenza Viruses Resistant to Neuraminidase Inhibitors in Global Surveillance during the First 3 Years of Their Use Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 50 (7), 2395-2402 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.01339-05

Yen, H., Herlocher, L., Hoffmann, E., Matrosovich, M., Monto, A., Webster, R., & Govorkova, E. (2005). Neuraminidase Inhibitor-Resistant Influenza Viruses May Differ Substantially in Fitness and Transmissibility Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 49 (10), 4075-4084 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.49.10.4075-4084.2005

Hurt, A., Holien, J., & Barr, I. (2009). In Vitro Generation of Neuraminidase Inhibitor Resistance in A(H5N1) Influenza Viruses Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 53 (10), 4433-4440 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00334-09

Yen, H., Hoffmann, E., Taylor, G., Scholtissek, C., Monto, A., Webster, R., & Govorkova, E. (2006). Importance of Neuraminidase Active-Site Residues to the Neuraminidase Inhibitor Resistance of Influenza Viruses Journal of Virology, 80 (17), 8787-8795 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00477-06

Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines,
And Threats Of A Global Pandemic
By Stephen Lendman
7-7-9

Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines,
And Threats Of A Global Pandemic
By Stephen Lendman
7-7-9

Although international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, America has had an active biological warfare program since at least the 1940s. In 1941, it began secret developmental efforts using controversial testing methods. During WW II, mustard gas was tested on about 4000 servicemen. Biological weapons research was also conducted. Human subjects were used as guinea pigs in various other experiments, and numerous illegal practices continued to the present, including secretly releasing toxic biological agents in US cities to test the effects of germ warfare.

The Hague Convention of 1907 banned chemical weapons usage, and the 1928 Geneval Protocol prohibited gas and bacteriological warfare. The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) “Prohibit(ed) the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction.” The 1989 Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act “implement(ed the) Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction….”

In 2001, the Bush administration rejected the 1972 BWC, took advantage of a loophole allowing “prophylactic, protective or other peaceful uses,” continued a secret Clinton administration bioweapons initiative, and asserted its right to spend multi-billions illegally to develop, test and stockpile “first-strike” chemical and biological weapons that potentially can kill millions.

In his August 14, 2008 article titled, “The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine,” F. William Engdahl cited:

“alarming evidence accumulated by serious scientific sources that the US Government is about to or already has ‘weaponized’ Avian Flu. If reports are accurate, this could unleash a new pandemic on the planet that could be more devastating than the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic which killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide before it eventually died out. Pentagon and NIH experiments with remains in frozen state of the 1918 virus are the height of scientific folly” unless something more nefarious is afoot in collaboration with Big Pharma to produce weaponized viruses and/or dangerous mandatory vaccines that, at the least, can cause serious autoimmune diseases or, as some allege, a Swine Flu or other viral pandemic.

Alarming News about Baxter International

On February 27, 2009, various news agencies including Helen Branswell in the Canadian Press, reported:

Baxter International that “released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed (today) that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.” The WHO said the incident occurred at the company’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria, but claimed “that public health and occupational risk is minimal” thus far. What’s not known, however, “are the circumstances” behind the incident that, according to some, raise suspicions while others call it a willful criminal act. More on that below.

The contaminated product, “a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 (Avian Flu) viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company….Avir Green Hills Biotechnology.” It then “sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.”

The problem was discovered when The Czech Republic company discovered that ferrets innoculated with the product died. “Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.” Public health authorities called it a “serious error” that showed “the H5N1 virus in the product was live.” But Baxter “has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.” Christopher Bona, the company’s global bioscience communications director, did confirm that the material was a “live….experimental virus” made at the Orth-Donau research laboratory.

Security experts expressed alarm that something this serious could happen, calling the co-mingling (or reassortment) of human H3N2 with H5N1 avian viruses a dangerous practice that should never occur because of the potentially devastating effects to human health. “If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people,” who, in turn, could transmit it to enough others to potentially cause a pandemic. So far, nothing this extreme has happened, but a future threat remains.

As Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation, Dr. Rima Laibow warns about dangerous, toxic drugs and vaccines. On March 6, 2009, she posted a “Pandemic Flu Emergency Action eAlert on her healthfreedomusa.org web site stating:

“World media (outside America) are reporting that Baxter Pharmaceuticals has admitted that it ‘accidently’ contaminated various vaccine batches with Avian Flu viruses. These batches were shipped to 18 countries. Clearly, either 1. stupidity and incompetence (are to blame) or 2. intentional contamination of flu vaccine lots was at work.”

Many Avian Flu vaccines compete with each other, yet they’re “profitable ONLY if used in huge numbers.” Although “Avian Flu has been slow to be become pandemic by ‘jumping the species barrier’ to humans in large numbers,” might Baxter’s “accident” be a way to do it? If so, Big Pharma will score “One of the biggest wins in history.”

In fact, it already has after the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) reported that Congress (in mid-June) “approved $7.65 billion for battling pandemic influenza, more than three times what the House and Senate had earlier proposed.” Unsurprisingly, it was part of “a $106 billion (Iraq and Afghanistan war) supplemental appropriation bill” to open a new front at home in the form of dangerous vaccines – perhaps to be mandated for everyone.

Laibow sees a “manipulated disaster of unprecedented magnitude precipitated by unprecedented avarice and greed,” and adds that “Baxter International Inc. is no stranger to recalls and lethal contaminations.” Its record includes producing faulty infusion and volumetric pumps, HIV-2 tainted Albumin Buminate 5 percent, faulty dialysis machine tubing and blood-cleaning filters, and various other products that should make everyone leery of its soon-to-be-released Swine Flu vaccine. Along with similar ones from other pharmaceutical companies, these drugs cause serious autoimmune diseases and absolutely should be avoided, even if mandated.

Laibow expresses great alarm in stating:

“Baxter mixed a virus which has a hard time infecting people (H5N1 Avian flu) with one that infects them easily (“Seasonal Flu”) in a medium which can promote mutations of the H5N1 virus into a type which can infect us easily. What will be in the vaccine you are forced/coerced/threatened into allowing into your body? Who knows?”

What is known are our constitutional and Nuremberg Code rights. The Fifth Amendment protects against abusive government authority in stating that “No person shall….be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law….” The Eight Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” Depriving someone of health is tantamount to the latter as well as life by harming and potentially shortening it.

The Nuremberg Code requires voluntary consent of human subjects without coercion, fraud, deceit, and with full disclosure of known risks. It also affirms that experiments should avoid “all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury,” and should never be conducted if there’s “an a priori reason to believe death or disabling injury will occur” or harm to human health.

The FDA as an Industry Front Group

As stated on its web site, the FDA is mandated to protect human health and well-being.

As an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.”

Run by officials of the industries it “regulates,” it fails on all counts. Byron J. Richards is a clinical nutritionist and founder of Wellness Resources. In his book “Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America,” he discusses FDA complicity with Big Pharma, dangerous drugs worth billions of dollars to the industry, and the serious risks to people who use them. He states:

“The FDA has put into mothballs its federal mandate to protect the public. In order to foster drug sales, the FDA hides important medical data from the public and from doctors, including the risks of heart attacks, suicide, seizures, and serious mental-health debility. Even worse, the FDA has changed sides. They are actively undermining the rights of citizens to claim damages if injured by drugs. And they are seeking to remove safety barriers to drug testing. They are planning to expose many individuals to unproven drugs, a new form of human experiment” that may rise to a higher level if HHS mandates dangerous Swine Flu vaccines for all Americans despite no forensic evidence of an outbreak or even a single proved death attributable to H1N1.

Yet, in advance of what looks to be coming, on June 11, the WHO declared that “The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic (in) decid(ing) to raise (its) influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to (its highest) phase 6” level.

Dr. Laibow advises that everyone has a “right to say “NO!” to vaccinations and other treatments that (they) do not want. The Police Power of the State ENDS at my skin and yours!” If a pandemic erupts, as a longtime natural health practitioner, she advises what she’ll use herself – Nano Silver as well as vitamins, minerals, and herbs like echinacea that boost the immune system, unlike dangerous vaccines that destroy it. For more information, she directs individuals to the web site: <http://www.nutronix.com/naturalsolutions>www.nutronix.com/naturalsolutions.

WHO, CDC, and Canada’s Public Health Agency (PHAC) Fearmongering Misinformation

Besides declaring its highest Level 6 influenza pandemic alert on June 11, the BBC reported on July 3 that WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, warned that the spread of swine flu is “unstoppable” while admitting that most cases are mild and many people recover unaided.

On June 25, Daniel DeNoon in WebMD Health News reported that CDC’s influenza surveillance chief, Dr. Lyn Finelli, said: “Right now, we are estimating over 1 million (Swine Flu) cases in the US” in 2009 affecting about 6% of households in major cities. She, too, admitted that the vast majority of cases have been mild but avoided the fundamental issue – that no forensic evidence attributes a single death globally to Swine Flu and all or most known instances may be ordinary viral influenza or common colds, bad enough to cause fever (at times high) and discomfort, last several days and then pass for most people.

With no proof, Finelli cited 3065 Swine Flu hospitalizations and 127 deaths. In a June 26 telebriefing, Dr. Anne Schachat, CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director, cited no verifiable forensic documentation in saying:

“The novel H1N1 (Swine Flu) influenza is continuing to spread here in the United States and around the globe. The key point is that this new infectious disease is not going away. In the US, we’re still experiencing a steady increase in the number of reported cases (and they’re just) the tip of the iceberg.” She added that vaccines are being hurriedly produced. No decisions have been made about “which populations” will need them, but “it’s very important for states and communities to begin intensifying their efforts on planning to administer a vaccine should such be necessary in the fall,” especially for “young people including school children, pregnant women, babies, and adults, particularly younger adults with those underlying conditions….” That said, it “doesn’t mean we’ve finalized any vaccine recommendations.”

On June 21, Canada’s National Post published Sharon Kirkey’s Canwest News Service report headlined, “Vaccinate Canadians under 40 and (aboriginal) natives first: experts.” She added that “Under Canada’s official pandemic plan, the entire population would ultimately be immunized against H1N1 swine flu,” but not at once as vaccines will only be available in batches.

Canada’s Public Health Agency (PHAC) “is working on a priority list,” effective for all provinces and territories. Gymnasiums will be used for mass vaccinations of school children, but no final decisions have been made.

In a June 26 news release, PHAC reported that “The Government of Canada today launched a three-year public education campaign to encourage parents to have their children immunized against certain diseases before the age of two. The Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, made the announcement at the annual meeting of the Canadian Paediatric Society” saying that “Immunization is one of the best tools we have to protect the health of our children.”

In fact, all vaccines are dangerous and should be avoided. They contain squalene-based adjuvants that cause a menu of autoimmune diseases in test subjects. In humans they include chronic fatigue, various type rashes, chronic headaches, anemia, aphthous ulcers, seizures, weakness, neuropsychiatric problems, ALS, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and multiple sclerosis, among other illnesses and diseases, some causing death.

It’s why Dr. Laibow says “No insurance company in the world will insure against” their risks. In America, a special fund “has paid out over 2 billion dollars to parents of children killed or maimed by vaccinations.” However, the vast majority of those harmed are never compensated, and US law ‘immunizes’ drug companies from lawsuits.

Laibow adds:

“In fact, vaccines are explicitly acknowledged NOT to protect against diseases they supposedly are designed to prevent (read the Package Inserts for vaccines, available on line and in your doctors’ offices if you doubt that) and often” cause them.

Yet they continue in use because they’re so “immensely, enormously and hideously profitable,” and Big Pharma has enough clout to proliferate products that “in a rational society (should) be banned forever.”

Bioterrorism Criminal Charges Filed

On June 10, Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister filed sweeping criminal charges with the FBI in addition to earlier ones on April 8 with the Vienna State Prosecutor’s Office against Baxter AG, Baxter International and Avir Green Hill Biotechnology AG, “for manufacturing, disseminating, and releasing a biological weapon of mass destruction on Austrian soil between December 2008 and February 2009 with the intention of causing a global bird flu pandemic virus and of intending to profit from that same pandemic in an act that violates laws on international organised crime and genocide.”

Baxter operates Biosafety Level 3 (BLS-3) labs that take strict precautions to assure no possibility of accidental H3N2 and H5N1 co-mingling contamination unless something more nefarious is afoot.

BLS-3 personnel are trained in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal agents and are supervised by competent scientists with extensive experience with them. In addition, these labs have specially engineered design features for added safety.

On its web site, CDC lists four biosafety levels:

— BLS-1 labs are “suitable for work involving well-characterized agents not known to consistently cause disease in healthy adult humans, and (pose) minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment.”

— BLS-2 labs are “similar to Biosafety Level 1 and (are) suitable for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment. It differs from BLS-1 in that (lab personnel) have specific training in handling pathogenic agents,” and are “directed by competent scientists.” In addition, access to the labs are limited, and “extreme precautions are taken with contaminated sharp items….”

— BLS-3 labs work with “indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of exposure by the inhalation route. Laboratory personnel have specific training in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal agents, and are supervised by competent scientists who are experienced in working with these agents.” Labs also have “special engineering and design features,” and follow strict procedures. In addition, protective clothing, equipment, and other extreme precautions are taken.

— BLS-4 labs are for the most highly toxic and dangerous agents – ones “that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections and life-threatening disease.” As a result, the strictest possible procedures and precautions are always taken.

By combining human influenza H3N2 with bird flu H5N1 virus in its BLS-3 lab, “Baxter produced a highly dangerous biological weapon with a 63 per cent mortality rate. The H5N1 virus is restricted in its human-to-human transmissibility, especially because it is less airborne.”

“However when….combined with seasonal flu viruses (easily transmitted by air), a new flu virus is created which is unknown to the human immune system and which will have a severe impact on an unprotected population. A deadly virus of this kind could spread around the world in a short time and (potentially) infect millions and even billions of people.”

Baxter (via Avir) “distributed (72 kilos of) contaminated (live bird flu) vaccines using false concealment and a false labels to 16 laboratories in Austria and….other countries at the end of January/beginning of February, potentially infecting at least 36-37 laboratory staff, who (were) treated preventively for bird flu and ordinary flu.” On the same day, 18 Avir employees were as well at Vienna’s Otto Wagner Hospital.

Burgermeister cited a Baxter-Avir 2006 contract with Austria’s Health Ministry for 16 million vaccine doses in case a bird flu pandemic was declared. She maintains that this “laboratory incident shows that national and international authorities are not able to fulfill their obligations to ensure the safety of the Austrian people” and claims that authorities were engaged in a cover-up.

“If a pharmaceutical company can breach laws – and almost trigger a bird flu pandemic, which (potentially could spread worldwide) – without being made accountable for it….then there is, de facto, no rule of law on Austrian territory.”

She also contends that Baxter’s production system, “namely, the use of 1200 liter bioreactors and vero cell technology,” meets “the technical criteria to be classified as a secret dual purpose large-scale bioweapon production facility (able to produce) a huge amount of contaminated vaccine material….rapidly.”

“If (this) material were added to the 1200 liter bioreactors, it would replicate and infect the entire batch of vaccine material in (it). Contaminated material could (then) be distributed among sections of the population using false labels and secretly marked batches (able to) infect millions of people.”

Burgermeister accused high-level Austrian Health and other Ministry officials of knowledge and support of this practice. Otherwise, controls would have been in place to prevent it. In June, she named drug producers Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi Aventis, world agencies, including the WHO, UN, and CDC, and high-level officials in Austria, other European countries, and America.

Whether or not there’s enough evidence to substantiate her charges, her case is vital to alert people globally to the potential health threat they face because inadequate controls are in place if the worst occurs.

It highlights the importance of being alert to this and other potential health hazards given lax government regulations and public complicity with powerful corporate interests, that in alliance show a disturbing indifference to public safety and well-being – worse still because dominant print and broadcast media stoke fear by reporting misinformation to convince people to use dangerous drugs and vaccines they should avoid.

As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Better be safe than sorry. Something nefarious may or may not be afoot, but it’s vital to learn the truth, know the risks, and assert your legal right to refuse all dangerous vaccines and other medications, even if mandated.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre of Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday – Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listing.

http://rense.com/general86/bio.htm

Sant Maam

 Of the rare moments my writer’s vein is waking up 🙂 most of the times is falling asleep just waiting for a change the next morning 😉

Qué te importa que te ame,
si tú no me quieres ya?
El amor que ya ha pasado
no se debe recordar

How many times a day a fresh face cleans up the mirrors so they stay spotless not staining the reflecting image..I hadn’t realized I was not paying attention to any mirrors,just passing by them quickly looking usually the other way.I hadn’t realized how many years had gone by until a unsuspected moment of the day I discovered a couple of old photos.Me smiling,me with friends,me careless,me with more flesh and life in me than what I have right now.

I hadn’t realized how why people were saying I was pretty.I used to think that I was having a horrible aspect.I took some distance from the photographic paper,taking looks at both images,the Before and the After ones.
I was ,let’s say, whatever nature made me with an expressive smile.I became quite skinny with a lifeless smile.
I was aspiring with high hopes,I became a hopeless individual grateful for making it through the day.
I was active,I remain active not to leave space for thoughts.
I was loving life,now I am scared I might lose my life

 

 

*coffee break*

Fui la ilusión de tu vida
un día lejano ya,
Hoy represento al pasado,
no me puedo conformar.

Thanks

I couldn’t care less,now I care less than less.
I wasn’t putting my trust on anyone,now I am easily convinced by sprinkled lies.
I was believing that all wrong is paid back in this life,now I believe in a vindictive Never Never Land
I was breathing, now I need a respiration tube and mechanical support.
I was feeling I could touch the sky,now my ego has shrank.
It’s a personal comparison between faded images of the past and the bright colored ones of the present.I feel no need to apologize to anyone for my own mess.I feel no need to say I am sorry for a silent tear that fell on the keyboard.Anyhow the world is so silent right now I could scream and be heard to the end of the universe.I don’t write lyrics as I am awfull with words.I am better in silence.I can’t express my own feelings even if I am dieing to.
And guess what,that’s the only thing in common between the two pieces of photographic paper.The world has always been so silent but full of faces.Now it’s silent and lonely.

In fact it is totally devastated like the war zone after the bombing.Full of holes everywhere like open mouths releasing sounds unheard.
*Coffee break again*

Thanks
How many times did the word “Silence” and its’ derivatives repeated themselves? As I use to say,there is nothing new under the sun.
Suffer and Pain isn’t my favorite game.Crying on my pillow either.I am not familiar with the term “depression” I never lost my self control.Yet lately I tend to believe all that could relief the burden of my soul and makes me wonder.. When did I change so much.Worse than that,Why did I feel the need to change so much?
On the other hand,I couldn’t care less..

Obviously I look like a pathetic desperate undefined being.I can totally understand as I have been through the young years of Arrogance and the Ignorance of the Immortal Bodies.There is no such thing unfortunately,the death wishes don’t correspond to the reality.One thing I learned until now: whoever seeks death,death will get.
Not my game either.Subcategory of Suffering and Pain.I was born to live even with crippled days and sleepless nights.I only wish I had this knowledge when I was younger: Nobody and Nothing ,Absolutely nothing is worth a lost life.Possibly as I lost mine not by physical death, the worst way to depart from this world and wander to the eternity:
A dead spirit inside the scull.
Wrong decisions taken under real pressure,on the move,constant rush building up a mountain of mistakes so tall that the peak is out of sight.A labyrinth of seconds and minutes embroided randomly on the wrong pattern.
Sometimes nothing makes sense.
I guess I don’t make sense either.
On the other hand I couldn’t care less.

Starting over :
How many times a day a fresh face cleans up the mirrors so they stay spotless not staining the reflecting image..I hadn’t realized I was not paying attention to any mirrors,just passing by them quickly looking usually the other way.I hadn’t realized how many years had gone by until a unsuspected moment of the day I discovered a couple of old photos.Me smiling,me with friends,me careless,me with more flesh and life in me than what I have right now…………………………………………………………………….. blabla blaaaaaaa

3am ,the alarm clock rings,I don’t want to get up shivering in the cold but the bed is colder than the entire ambient,hands come out of the mattress  the hands that have haunted it ,pushing me out of the covers  like frozen stalactites like a cave trying to absorb me to consume  me in a last desperate effort,the  cushions whispering deceitfully to my ears “I love you,I always had and I always will” mixing the voices and blurring the memories.

The implanted guilts push me down the staircase screaming ” You never loved me” as I land on the last step trying to figure out why ,still confused from the repetition of the same scene  I put the pieces of my past together  trying to make the first coffee of the night before it turns into a painful day.

Si las cosas que uno quiere
se pudieran alcanzar,
tú me quisieras lo mismo
que veinte años atrás.

Con qué tristeza miramos
un amor que se nos va
Es un pedazo del alma
que se arranca sin piedad

“You lied to me” A deep voice comes from inside the chimney  as the fire wood rolls at my feet crying “ I trusted you”.The window opens wide fiercely and  the handle whines” You were the love of my life”   forcing me to step back frozen by the wind  stumbling upon the grieving coffee table “ You hurt me so deeply”.

The entrance door vanishes in front of my awakening eyes,revealing a misty appealing landscape urging me to lose myself into the semi lit woods  while the lachrymose walls  bend begging “Don’t go please”

But I do want to go,I have been gone since a long time ago as I walk backwards to the tangled branches looking back at the dismantled figures and distorted faces .

“You can’t reach me” I whisper  almost petrified  the shape of me  dissolving with the rain.

“You will always be a part of me” the voices fade away as I fend off finding myself in an unknown place an ideal place,a quiet place almost serene  out of time,out of the present out of any known dimension.No gravity. No remorses.No walls.

Absolutely nothing.

Absolute Freedom.

“I loved you  but I don’t love you anymore. “

My voice echoed in the room.

The palm of my hand ran over the warm mattress ,the covers feeling so warm and my gaze fixed at the bedroom door.

Nobody.

“ I should write a book some day” my thoughts mumbled as they fell asleep again

Looking back seems that I was so fortunate to have been loved by everybody in my life.I wonder if it is so,why II still have this bitter taste in my mouth,maybe I am the one who can’t distinct love from hatred or maybe the love I was provided with was disguised hatred.

‘ I love you but I want to hurt you’ is one of the loving phrases still echoing in my heart,not even in my mind.I really embraced that phrase.Contains all the alleged love I  received in a  soul damaging mode.

Speaking of which,I was put on a stand by mode without me noticing:

I love you but I don’t like your attitude.

Pause

I love you but I don’t like your outfit

Pause

I love you but those shoes……… well

Pause

I love you but I don’t feel comfortable with your friends

Pause

I love you but……

Pause,rewind and stop pressed.Silence from the speakers.

The significant other inquires really concerned

Something’s wrong?

How on earth could something be wrong!Everything is really rolling in our non relationship.

 And all of the sudden,an expected flashback hits the brain cells:

You are late,where were you?

Don’t you know? At work?

How  do I know?

What do you mean?

You are seeing someone else,don’t you.

Smiling victoriously at the court when the judge announces the court order but with the heart ripped off.One more failure in the list.

Supposingly moving on.Of course,it is exactly what all human beings should do,the only difference is that I moved on in circles,Just like Ursula Buendia was saying in Marquez’s book,One Hundred Years of Solitude.

*Inner thought* Maybe I could reach a life of one hundred years in absolute solitude.

* Flashback*

A shot of Absolute vodka somewhere in the States and the Absolute  list is getting longer.

One more failure,who cares,I will yes maybe probably I will get over him,well don’t worry about me,of course I am fine I could’t ever be better,oh please who do you think I am,I know how to face situations *phone chats,meetings with concerned friends a hurt look from my mother.

I told you many times it’s my life!

I think if you were changing your outfit maybe you would be having more luck……

Meaning?

 Even if you quit asking the same question.

Okay mom,maybe you should be wearing high heels again when you can hardly walk?

Back on the airplane ,one more failure,at the other side of the ocean plenty of failures,regressing like walking on ice,sliding  from day to day and from year to year.

New horizonts wide open in front of me:

Lovely quiet candle lit nights, maybe the  quest was worth it.A new found land.

Wrong again.

But I do love you.

But I don’t.

But I love you with all my heart.

Thanks but I don’t.

Moving on as all human beings are supposed to.Mayor’s office on a dull Sunday morning,nothing really important.One happy month. The second one , one more failure.

Why?

I really don’t know.

How can you possibly not know!

I am really sorry I mean I really am sorry.

You aren’t sorry at all.But why  her?

I honestly don’t know.I wouldn’t lie to you.

*Sorry,but you lied already*

Moving on as I should do this time.

I love you.

Why me?

But I do,I can’t explain it.

I can’t either.

The unexplained remains unexplained and one more failure .Moving on as only I should do to maintain my clarity and possibly my sanity too.With flashbacks and with no final decisions,not cutting bridges with  the failures the contrary,keeping them all so alive I could even touch their hand.Trapped in a dead end with an obvious exit and me faking a smile.

Dark days arrived ,they asked to stay for a couple of days and they stayed for a couple of years.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me!

I will always be here.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I am sorry for what happened in the past.

Anyone of you two has a tissue or something? Please?

Both handed me just a band aid .For once in my life I had  something to hold on to,a band aid. But none was there  as loud as I called their names.Confusing my days with mixed signals sent from the core  meeting my own ones half way  creating a wonderful  colorful blizzard  pouring stars on us.

I  want us back together.

Too late,sorry.I don’t like your attitude and your shoes.

Rewinding but never moving on.I am fine,thanks for asking.

i love Africa. love The culture. love anything that has to do with this world.

my problem is that this world doesnt love my countries..
Beats me why. But yall take care and love each other as no one would ever do

Η ανεργία στην Ελλάδα ΔΕΝ είναι πιά επιλογή αλλά καθεστώς

I tried to pass this on Twitter but everyone is busy doing their own thingy.Not to blame anyone but anyway,thought the best way to spread the word is directly from my own blog.
The needs in Greece are increasing.Any kind of clothing is needed right now as we have winter approaching.I am lucky I still have power and an Internet connection to use it for helping others as well.If you reside in the austerity struck Greece -or know someone who does-and you have spare clothes,clothes that don’t fit in your children,shoes,blankets,school bags anything,please call to the Family and Kid non profit organization ,they collect directly from your place what we consider trash,to donate it and help some kids stay warm.

Do not forget,Unemployment in Greece is no longer an option. Is a status quo

+30 2310 502900 Thessaloniki region.NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION

Προσπαθησα να το στειλω μεσω twitter αλλα καθως ειναι Σαββατο,ολοι πινουν καφέ και πετανε φιλοσοφιες για αντρες και γυναικες,οπισθια και σεξ και δεν συμμαζευεται. Λοιπον παιδακια,επειδη δοκιμασα εκκλησιες και σωματεια και δεν ξερω τί αλλο,και κανεις ΜΑ ΚΑΝΕΙΣ δεν βοηθαει,μη ξεχναμε οτι ο γειτονας εχει κομμενο ρευμα,ειναι ανεργος με 2 ανηλικα και δεν τη βγαζει.Γραφω σε απλα ελλήνικος μηπως και γινω κατανοητή. ΔΕΝ ΜΕ ΝΟΙΑΖΟΥΝ τα χιτς στο blog οποιος εκτιμα οσα γραφω,διαβαζει,οποιος δεν.. σιγα τα ωά,καλη καρδια παντα.
Σημερα ξεκαθαριζα τα ρουχα των παιδιων μου,οσοι εχουμε παιδια ξερουμε πόσο γρηγορα μεγαλωνουν.. μαζεψα 4 σακκουλες ρουχα κι ακομη δεν εχω ξεκαθαρισει τα παπουτσια. Σας παρακαλω,εαν μενετε στην Ελλαδα,μην πετατε τιποτε!. Αν μενετε στην περιοχη Θεσσαλονικης,υπαρχει το σωματείο Οικογενεια και Παιδι,που μαζευει απο τον χωρο σας ο,τι θα πετουσατε και τα δινει σε οικογενειες με αναγκες. Μην ξεχνατε οτι στην Ελλαδα πια η ανεργια ΔΕΝ ειναι επιλογη.Ειναι καθεστως. Οφειλουμε ολοι μας να βοηθησουμε.Ο σκοπος του να διατηρω το blog δεν ειναι μονο να αποκαλυπτω τα μεγαλα συμφεροντα,ειναι και να βαζω εμβολιμη μια ασχετη αναρτηση οταν υπαρχει αναγκη.

Περιοχη Θεσσαλονικης 2310 502900 ΜΗ ΚΕΡΔΟΣΚΟΠΙΚΟ ΣΩΜΑΤΕΙΟ
Μοναστηρίου 45
54627
Θεσσαλονικη

Αγοραστε μια σακκουλα μακαρονια και χαριστε τα παλια ρουχα. Ακομη κι αν εχουν λεκεδες απο σοκολατα(ρωτησα το παλικαρι που του εδωσα 5 εβρα και επεμενε οτι ειναι πολλα..) Σας δινουν και αποδειξη για τους δυσπιστους. αλλα ετσι κι αλλιως θα τα αφηνατε στο πλαι του καδου,δεν σας κοστιζει τιποτε να παρετε ενα τηλεφωνο,να ερθουν να μαζεψουν τα παλια σας ρουχα.

Απο τα δικα σας σκουπιδια καποιοι θα ζεσταθουν τον χειμωνα.

Σκεφτειτε το πριν πειτε “ωχ μωρε παλι τα ίδια”

Obama Promised GMO Labeling in 2007

According to a poll conducted by Reuters Thompson, more than 90% of Americans feel that products containing GMOs should be labeled.  Back in 2007, Obama pulled the support of GMO activists by promising to push for proper labeling of GMO food items, stating that he would push to “let folks know when their food is genetically modified, because Americans have a right to know what they’re buying.” Of course the promise was not fulfilled, as 4 years later in 2011 GMO foods are still not properly labeled. In fact, products containing the Non-GMO label have actually been found to contain GMOs.

Not only has Obama been completely silent on the GMO labeling issue despite his bold statements, but so has the FDA — the very organization in charge of ensuring the ‘health’ of United States consumers. An organization that has caused even more harm, however, is the USDA. The USDA has been approving the production of many new genetically modified crops, including the highly-controversial genetically modified alfalfa. Despite the warnings of scientists and health activists over the dangers of genetically modified crops on human health and the environment, the USDA has continually supported biotech corporation Monsanto over the American public.

GMOs rambunctiously approved by the FDA and USDA, despite known dangers

Despite acknowledging the fact that these crops lead to herbicide-resistant weeds, the USDA assures consumers that these DNA-altering crops are safe for consumption.

As the FDA and USDA continually approve genetically modified creations such as AquaAdvantage salmon without proper labeling, it becomes necessary for consumers to take action. Major ‘health’ food stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s still offer products that contain GMOs that are either not labeled at all, or deceptively so. Slogans like ‘All Natural’ mean virtually nothing when it comes to GMOs and other toxic ingredients, tricking shoppers into thinking they are avoiding these health sinks.

Tell Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to label their GMO products and stop deceiving customers. It seems that it will be health-conscious activists, not Obama, who will ”let folks know when their food is genetically modified, because Americans have a right to know what they’re buying.”

Rational Conflict Resolution: What Stands In the Way?

 

by Johan Galtung, 14 May 2012 – TRANSCEND Media Service

Basel, Switzerland, World Peace Academy

Six conflicts, four current, one past and one future are shaping our present reality. Conflict is a relation of incompatibility between parties; not an attribute of one party. It spells danger of violence and opportunity to create new realities. Thus, to understand the shoa the narratives of unspeakable German atrocity and infinite Jewish suffering are indispensable. But so are the narratives of German-Jewish relations, Germans to others, Jews to others. Failure to do so blocks rationality: if conflict is in the relation, then the solution is in a new relation. This is not blaming the victim. What matters most is changing the relation. Are we able?

View this document on Scribd

First case: USA vs Latin America-Caribbean. The recent meeting of the Organization of American States ended 32 against 1, USA. The 32 wanted Cuba readmitted and decriminalization of marijuana. Obama vetoed both; the relation a scandal, overshadowed by a sex scandal.

Solution: The USA yields to democracy on both, negotiates some time for the transition, and a review clause after 5 years. The USA also welcomes CELAC–the organization of Latin American and Caribbean states without USA and Canada–with OAS as a meeting ground for equitable and amicable South-North relations. Washington would be embraced by CELAC and the whole world. A sigh of relief. And the world could continue its fight against the far more lethal tobacco.

What stands in the way? A falling empire clinging to the past, fear of looking weak, elections, huge problems like a crisis economy and social disintegration: Charles Murray Coming Apart and Timothy Noah The Great Divergence. Backyard treatment of the US backyard.

Second case: Israel vs Iran; the nuclear issue; war or not. Uri Avnery[i]: “–in our country we are now seeing a verbal uprising against the elected politicians by a group of current and former army generals, foreign intelligence [Meir Dagan, Mossad] and internal security [Yuval Diskin, Shin Beth] chiefs–condemn the government’s threat to start a war against Iran, and some of them condemning the government’s failure to negotiate with the Palestinians for peace.”

Diskin: “Israel is now led by two incompetent politicians with messianic delusions and a poor grasp of reality. Their plan to attack Iran will lead to a world-wide catastrophe. Not only will it fail to prevent the production of an Iranian atom bomb–it will hasten this effort–with the support of the world community.

Uri Avnery on the not exactly dialogical, talmudic response:

“They did what Israelis almost always do when faced with serious problems or serious arguments; they don’t get to grips with the matter itself but select some minor detail and belabor it endlessly. Practically speaking no one tried to disprove the assertions of the officers, neither concerning the proposed attack on Iran nor the nuclear issue. They focused on the speakers, not on what was said: Dagan and Diskin are embittered because their terms of office were not extended. They felt humiliated–venting personal frustration”. Then Diskin on Netanyahu: “a Holocaust obsessed fantasist, out of contact with reality, distrusting all Goyim, trying to follow in the footsteps of a rigid and extremist father-altogether a dangerous person to lead a nation in real crisis” according to Avnery.

Solution: A Middle East nuclear free zone with Iran and Israel; 64 percent of Israelis are in favor, Iran the same provided Israel is in it. Could also be a model for the Korean peninsula. Agreement to try, a sigh of relief all over, both countries would be embraced.

There are problems: under whose auspices and whose monitoring. How about Pakistan and Ali Bhutto’s “islamic bomb”, impossible without India that has superpower denuclearization as condition?

There are answers, all worth discussing, in depth, seriously.

Israel is wasting its time. A wonderful talmudic tradition, a precious freedom of expression–generally very present in Ha’aretz–and misused for personal abuse instead of for solutions to very real crises. Like Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, and Gershom Gorenberg, The Unmaking of Israel (2011).

What stands in the way? The horrors of the past defining the discourse. Like some Iraqis use the Baghdad massacre in 1258, some Israelis use the holocaust as a framework for world events, blind to the differences, and to what could have been done at that time. And many let this pass not to hurt Israeli-Jewish feelings or for fear of being labeled as anti-Semites or holocaust-deniers. Not Dagan, Diskin and some generals. Nor real friends searching for solutions: not anti-Semites, nor holocaust deniers, nor prisoners of the past.

Third case: Israel vs Palestine. I have argued since 1971 a Middle East Community of Israel with five Arab neighbors, Palestine recognized according to international law, 1967 borders with some exchanges, Israeli cantons on the West bank and Palestinian cantons in northwest Israel. Solution: A two-state Israel-Palestine nucleus within that six-state community within an Organization for Security and Cooperation in the Middle East (or West Asia). Model: Germany-France 1950, + EEC as of January 1 1958, + OSCE from 1990 onwards. Open borders, a council of ministers, commissions for water, border patrols, economy; capitals in the two Jerusalems; right of return, also for Palestinians: numbers to be discussed, as Arafat insisted.

What stands in the way? Key Israeli and Arab contra-arguments: “Surrounded by hostile Arabs we cannot let them in that close, they overpower us numerically, push us into the sea” says one; “The Jews penetrate us economically and run our economies”, says the other.

There are answers: Decisions would have to be by consensus. Start slowly with free flow of goods, persons, services and ideas; settlement and investment perhaps later. Build confidence. Change a relation badly broken by naqba into a peaceful, evolving relation.

Fourth case: A recipe for disaster: minorities, outsiders in key niches like economy-culture: Turks vs Armenians, Hutus vs Tutsis, Indonesians vs Chinese. But not Malays vs Chinese due to Mahathir’s discrimination in favor of the majority. Israel would gain from lifting the Arabs out of this social rank discordance; also a feature of Germany. Add the Versailles Treaty humiliation, Hitler and willing executioners.

Solution? Cancel the Versailles treaty in 1924, lift the German majority through education and employment into equality and we might have avoided World War II in Europe. What is rationality? Not justify, but explain, understand, and then remove the causes!

What stood in the way? Very few thought of this.

So much for a major fourth conflict of the past. Fifth case: rampant US anti-Semitism, now latent, using scapegoating to explain the decline of the USA and Israel; failing to grasp solutions for their eyes, both lost in the past, one in glory, one in trauma.

Imagine USA losing even more: support from allies, the magic of being exceptional-invincible-indispensable gone, torn between misery at the bottom and incredible riches at the top, the dollar no longer a world reserve currency, etc. A real fear right now: rampant anti-Semitism in the USA. This must be handled constructively, not by churning out anti-Semitism certificates, scaring US congressmen from questioning Israel, thereby jeopardizing US democracy itself. The tipping point from christian zionism to an anti-Semitism against Israel, Wall Street and American Jews in general may be close.

Solution: The US mainstream media become more pluralistic, less monochromatic, opening up to a range of discourses and solutions. Criticism of Israel and Wall Street is not enough, constructive solutions are needed. A solution culture, not a blaming culture. Like the ideas above for USA vs CELAC, Israel vs Iran, Israel vs Arab states. Nothing extreme, outlandish, and much to discuss.

But mainstream media constructive discussions are few in the US. There are hundreds of points to be made, like there once were when Europe was emerging from the ruins of World War II. Instead of degrading and humiliating Germany two brilliant French invited them into the family (now with its problems). Let thousand good ideas blossom! There is too much about the Cartagena sex scandal and too little about new ways of lifting the bottom of US poor into dignity, reducing the ever increasing inequality devastating the US economy.

What stands in the way? Clinging to the past, vested interests, the war industry, a blaming culture rather than a solution culture. But vast majorities and new and old media should be able to overcome.

Sixth case, very much related to this: debt bondage. China-Japan-EU vs USA; Germany vs Greece-Italy-Portugal-Spain-Ireland (GIPSI); the World Bank vs the Third World, with John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man as a gruesome illustration.

Yes, I have mentioned that fabrication by the Russian secret police, the Protocols–a conspiracy revealed long time ago. But like Mein Kampf condemnation is not enough, better know what one talks about. The Protocols read like a textbook on how to get others into debt bondage, starting with making workers believe they can be better paid and how these entitlements as they are called in the US debate can push a country into bondage. The first reaction to credit is a sigh of relief, the second is not knowing how to cut expenses or make some income to service the debt. The third is hatred mobilizing old traumas–look at Greece and Germany.

Solution: debt forgiveness, and contracting fewer debts. The time horizon can vary, and it must be accompanied by mobilization of all internal resources to lift the bottom up from suffering and into some acquisitive power, rejuvenating countrysides with agricultural cooperatives, trade among GIPSI countries. The threat to EU today is not only a single currency with no treasury–much better would have been the euro as a common currency–but a debt bondage gradient in what should be a more egalitarian community. The material out of which aggression is made. Not only forgiveness but also stimulus would be in Germany’s interest relative to the EU periphery, and the same goes for China relative to the USA (possibly coupled to agreed reduction of their arms budgets), and to the World Bank in general.

What stands in the way? Long on neo-liberal market ideology, short on eclecticism, of all good ideas, for alternative economies.

Conclusion: Humanity has vast positive and negative experiences. We should all join building on them, wherever they can be found.

(*) Some recent statements of mine, quoted out of context, have hurt some feelings. I apologize most sincerely for that, it was entirely unintended. One such context was the Breivik case in Norway with its many ramifications. A deeper context are the six conflicts addressed in this presentation.

NOTE:
[i] Uri Avnery, “A Putsch against War.” TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS May 7 2012.
_______________

Johan Galtung, a Professor of Peace Studies, is Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He is author of over 150 books on peace and related issues, including ‘50 Years – 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgment and link to the source, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, is included. Thank you.

 

Obama's Offshore Oil Plan a Disaster for Wildlife, Climate

Published on Tuesday, November 8, 2011

WASHINGTON— The Obama administration announced plans today to expand offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and offer additional lease sales in the sensitive waters off Alaska. Ramping up offshore drilling raises the risk of disastrous spills, puts wildlife in harm’s way and deepens U.S. dependence on the fossil fuels driving the global climate crisis.

“Last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was supposed to be a wake-up call about the dangers of offshore drilling, but it looks like President Obama hit the snooze button and slept right through it,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We just can’t keep expanding offshore drilling and not expect to have more disastrous spills.”

The five-year plan announced today will set the stage for 15 lease sales in six offshore areas, including the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas and portions of the Gulf of Mexico near areas where development has so far been off-limits.

The plan to lease more parts of the Gulf of Mexico for drilling follows a March 2011 report by the Department of the Interior that found most existing leases are inactive. The report showed that 70 percent of existing federal oil and gas offshore lease acres are inactive, with no production, exploration or development.

“Gulf of Mexico communities are still reeling from the impacts of last year’s oil spill, and now the president wants to put those same communities at risk again,” said Sakashita. “The administration’s claiming significant steps have been taken to make drilling safer, but in fact there’s been no fundamental reform that can keep the Gulf of Mexico or the Arctic safe from the next spill catastrophe.”

The plan proposes to sell leases in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas, home to all of America’s polar bears. A U.S. Geological Survey report concluded that key scientific information is lacking for the development of oil and gas in Arctic offshore waters; effective spill cleanup in this remote area is nonexistent. The Coast Guard’s top official, Commandant Robert Papp, told Congress that the federal government currently has “zero” spill response capability in the Arctic.

“Polar bears are already teetering at the brink of extinction. Policies that worsen climate change and raise the risk of disastrous oil spills in their habitat will push them over the edge,” said Sakashita.

source

Honduras: Which Side Is the US On?

In some ways, it was just one more bloody episode in a blood-soaked country. In the early hours of the morning on May 11, a group of indigenous people traveling by canoe on a river in the northeast Mosquitia region of Honduras came under helicopter fire. When the shooting was over, at least four persons lay dead, including, by some accounts, two pregnant women. In Honduras, such grisly violence is no longer out of the ordinary. But what this incident threw into stark relief was the powerful role the United States is playing in a Honduran war.
About the Author
Dana Frank
Dana Frank is a professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of Bananeras: Women…
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US officials maintain that the Drug Enforcement Administration commandos on board the helicopters did not fire their weapons that morning; Honduran policemen pulled the triggers. But no one disputes that US forces were heavily involved in the raid, and that the helicopters were owned by the US State Department.

The United States has, in fact, been quietly escalating its military presence in Honduras, pouring police and military funding into the regime of President Porfirio Lobo in the name of fighting drugs. The DEA is using counterinsurgency methods developed in Iraq against drug traffickers in Honduras, deploying squads of commandos with US military Special Forces backgrounds to work closely with the Honduran police and military. The US ambassador to Honduras, Lisa Kubiske, recently said, “We have an opportunity now, because the military is no longer at war in Iraq. Using the military funding that won’t be spent, we should be able to have resources to be able to work here.”

Missing from the official story—never mentioned by US officials, and left out of mainstream news coverage—is that the US government’s ally in this campaign, the Lobo regime, is the illegitimate progeny of the military coup that deposed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at first criticized the coup government, led initially by Roberto Micheletti, but then legitimated it. After almost all the opposition candidates (as well as international observers) boycotted the post-coup election that brought Lobo to power, heads of state throughout the region refused to recognize his presidency; but the United States hailed him for “restoring democracy” and promoting “national reconciliation.” The State Department and Clinton continue to repeat both fictions, as did President Obama when he welcomed Lobo to the White House in October.

Meanwhile, US officials blame drug trafficking for almost all the country’s problems. “It may be gratifying to attribute Honduras’s problems to generals with sunglasses or to rigged elections,” former US ambassador to Honduras James Creagan insisted in a February 5 letter to the New York Times. “But it is not true. This is not the 1970s with Central American coups, contras and revolutionaries.” Rather, he asserted, the violence in Honduras “is caused by drugs, gangs and corruption…all driven by the market for coca leaf products.”

Only in the post-coup context, however, can we understand the very real crisis of drug trafficking in Honduras. A vicious drug culture already existed before the coup, along with gangs and corrupt officials. But the thoroughgoing criminality of the coup regime opened the door for it to flourish on an unprecedented scale. Drug trafficking is now embedded in the state itself—from the cop in the neighborhood all the way up to the very top of the government, according to high-level sources. Prominent critics and even government officials, including Marlon Pascua, the defense minister, talk of “narco-judges” who block prosecutions and “narco-congressmen” who run cartels. Alfredo Landaverde, a former congressman and police commissioner in charge of drug investigations, declared that one out of every ten members of Congress is a drug trafficker and that he had evidence proving “major national and political figures” were involved in drug trafficking. He was assassinated on December 7.

Far more than criminal gangs in the streets and drug traffickers acting independently, it is the Honduran state itself that has made Honduras, according to the Associated Press, “among the most dangerous places on earth.”

The administration argues that it is helping Honduras clean up its police by providing additional funding for “training.” But as former President Zelaya underscored in a conversation with me on May Day, “The police are the drug traffickers. If you fund the police, you’re funding the drug traffickers.”

* * *

When Lobo took office in January 2010, he reappointed to top positions the same military figures (sunglasses and all) who had managed the coup, including its leader, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, as head of Hondutel, the state-owned telephone company. Last summer, Manuel Enrique Cáceres, a high-ranking minister in the cabinet of Micheletti’s post-coup government, was made director of the aviation authority.

The coup, in turn, unleashed a wave of violence by state security forces that continues unabated. On October 22, an enormous scandal broke when the Tegucigalpa police killed the son of Julieta Castellanos, rector of the country’s largest university and a member of the government’s Truth Commission, along with a friend of his. Top law enforcement officials admitted that the police were responsible for the killings but allowed the suspects to disappear, precipitating an enormous crisis of legitimacy, as prominent figures such as Landaverde stepped forward throughout the autumn to denounce the massive police corruption. The police department, they charged, is riddled with death squads and drug traffickers up to the very highest levels.

“It’s scarier to meet up with five police officers on the streets than five gang members,” former Police Commissioner María Luisa Borjas declared in November. According to the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (Cofadeh), more than 10,000 official complaints have been filed about abuses by the police and military since the coup, none of which have been addressed. Marvin Ponce, vice president of Congress, has charged that 40 percent of the Honduran police are involved in organized crime. The sheer viciousness of the police was laid bare on Valentine’s Day, when the worst prison fire in modern history claimed the lives of 361 prisoners in Comayagua in part because their guards—regular police officers—refused to allow firefighters to enter for thirty minutes.

Reform efforts have been promised by the Lobo administration and Congress, but they have gone nowhere. A top-level commission fell apart and a new one doesn’t yet function. Key figures involved in the “cleanup” include Eduardo Villanueva, one of Micheletti’s top ministers following the coup, and Héctor Ivan Mejía, the current police spokesman, who as chief of police in San Pedro Sula issued the order on September 15, 2010, to tear-gas a peaceful demonstration by the opposition, including a high school marching band.

In response to calls by human rights groups that non-Hondurans oversee the cleanup, Lobo on April 24 appointed to a new commission Gen. Aquiles Blu Rodriguez, himself accused of obstruction of justice and drug-related charges in Chile. The Honduran government admitted on May 1 that only eighteen cases against police officers had gone forward.

Unable to purge itself, the government has instead responded to the security crisis with even greater repression. Cofadeh and the Center for Justice and International Law have raised alarms over recent measures “that presumably are trying to combat criminality but that are restrictive of the human rights of the population,” including a law allowing wiretapping with few restrictions and another permitting inspection of the bank records of nonprofits. (The Honduran Congress is also considering the most repressive contraception law in the world, making it a crime to distribute the morning-after pill, even to rape victims.) On March 20 an “emergency” measure allowing the military to take on ordinary police duties, such as patrolling the streets, was extended for three months. Lobo has said he wants to make this measure permanent, in direct violation of the fire wall between the police and the military enshrined in the Honduran Constitution.

The Honduran military is corrupt, too. On November 1, 2010, an airplane used in drug trafficking was “robbed” from a military base in San Pedro Sula. According to La Tribuna, a right-wing newspaper, at least nineteen members of the army were complicit, including top- and intermediate-ranked officers. In August 2011, 300 automatic rifles and 300,000 bullets disappeared from a warehouse of the army’s elite Cobras unit. Despite this record of corruption, a new decree permits the military to accept no-bid contracts—a green light for even more corruption.

Most dangerous of all, since the coup, the government has attacked the opposition relentlessly and mercilessly. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reports “serious incidents of violence and repression” against demonstrations. At least twenty-two journalists and media workers have been killed since the coup, according to Reporters Without Borders; most of them were critics of the government. On May 16, the body of well-known radio reporter Alfredo Villatoro was found, dressed in a police uniform, a week after he was abducted. On May 7, Erick Martinez, a beloved journalist, LGBTI and resistance activist, and candidate for Congress with LIBRE, the opposition party, was found dead, strangled, by the side of the road. The AFL-CIO also reports “numerous murders, attacks and threats since 2009 aimed at trade unionists for their labor or political activities.”

Those who dare to document this are at tremendous risk. The United Nations reported in February that “human rights defenders continue to suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment, death threats, attacks, harassment, and stigmatization.” On February 22, for example, a paramilitary group called the CAM, linked to death squads during the 1980s, sent a text message to Dina Meza, press officer and co-founder of Cofadeh, that read: “We are going to burn your pussy with lime until you scream and later the whole squad is going to enjoy [you].” In late April, the same paramilitary group began sending death threats to two women, one British, the other French, who serve as “accompaniment” to protect those who have been threatened. Even when the government does promise protection, it’s rarely delivered, and victims are sometimes guarded by the very same police from whom they need to be protected.

Campesino activists have paid the highest price. In the lower Aguán Valley, at least 46 campesinos struggling over land rights have been killed since the coup, most of them allegedly by a combination of police, military and the private army of Miguel Facussé, the richest, most powerful man in the country and a key backer of the coup. The perpetrators enjoy near-complete impunity. On June 24, 2011, for example, seventy-five policemen destroyed the entire campesino community of Rigores, burning down more than 100 houses and bulldozing three churches and a seven-room schoolhouse; not one has been charged. At least ten security guards and others have died in the conflict as well. In an e-mailed response to questions for this article, Facussé admitted that in one incident four campesinos were killed in what he described as a “gun battle” with his security guards.

Overall, a Honduran man, woman or child is killed every seventy-four minutes. According to the UN, in 2011, the country had the highest murder rate in the world. Some of these killings are the kind that happen in a bar fight or domestic disagreement, when someone pulls out a gun or machete because they know nothing will happen to them in the dysfunctional Honduran judicial system. In February, the UN found “pervasive impunity” in Honduras. According to Human Rights Watch, women and LGBTI people have been particularly targeted for murder, including by police. In this free-for-all, gangs control whole neighborhoods in the capital, where they charge taxes on businesses and vehicles.

What difference does a coup make? Add up the rampant corruption of the Honduran state, the crime it unleashed and perpetrates, and its ruthless repression of the opposition, and it’s impossible to blame the crisis merely on drug trafficking and gangs; nor can organized crime and drug trafficking be separated from the criminal regime of Porfirio Lobo and the Honduran oligarchs.

* * *

The propriety of a US alliance with such a brutal and undemocratic government is finally being challenged in Washington. On November 28, Howard Berman, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to Secretary Clinton asking whether the United States was in fact arming a dangerous regime. Ninety-four members of the House, including many in the Democratic leadership, signed a March 9 letter sponsored by Representative Jan Schakowsky calling for the suspension of police and military aid, especially in light of the situation in the Aguán Valley. On March 5, seven senators signed a letter sponsored by Barbara Mikulski expressing concern over “the increasing number of human rights violations” in Honduras.

Congress didn’t just suddenly grow a spine by itself, of course. Activists in the Honduras Solidarity Network and their allies have hammered away for almost three years to build support at the grassroots level and translate it into power in Washington—and Honduras (full disclosure: I am a member). In response, the State Department has acknowledged the human rights issues and the security crisis but has yet to firmly denounce the Lobo administration for its repression and corruption. In response to urgent queries from US human rights activists concerned about death squad activities, the embassy replied that it had communicated its concern to the Lobo administration but had not requested an investigation into the CAM specifically, saying that, “unfortunately, the capacity of Honduran law enforcement authorities to conduct effective investigations is limited. The United States government is assisting them to improve this capacity.”

This idea that the Honduran government needs US help to fix itself—which critics regard as naïve at best, given the Lobo administration’s manifest unwillingness to reform itself—is how US officials justify support for the Lobo regime. Vice President Joe Biden flew to Honduras on March 6, promising that “the United States is absolutely committed to continuing to work with Honduras to win this battle against the narcotraffickers.” Biden promised increased military and police funds under the Central American Regional Security Initiative, to the tune of $107 million. Obama’s proposed budget for 2013 more than doubles key police and military funds to Honduras.

Biden’s visit came amid a growing chorus of criticism of US drug policy throughout the region. Presidents Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala have openly called for the legalization of drugs, repudiating what they charge are ineffective US-driven military solutions.

What’s driving the administration’s aggressive policy? The United States has long regarded Honduras, its most captive client state in Latin America, as strategically important. As in the 1980s, when Honduras served as the US base for the contra war against Nicaragua, the country is the regional hub for US military operations in Central America. It received more than $50 million in Pentagon contracts last year, including $24 million to make the barracks at the Soto Cano Air Base permanent for the first time since 1954. Soto Cano has great strategic significance as the only US air base between the United States and South America. Sixty-two percent of all Defense Department funds for Central America in 2011 went to Honduras.

Moreover, US corporate interests in Honduras are enormous, including mining and hydroelectric investments, Dole’s and Chiquita’s expansive banana operations (employing 11,000 people), and apparel, auto parts and other manufacturers that employ more than 110,000, including 3,000 at a Lear Corporation factory in San Pedro Sula that makes electrical distribution systems.

The military coup made possible what Hondurans call the “second coup”: the deeper economic agenda of transnational investors and Honduran elites, now given almost free rein to use the state as they choose. At the top of their list is privatization of basic state functions. Laws are moving through Congress privatizing the country’s electrical systems, water systems and ports. In an overt attack on Honduras’s powerful and militant teachers unions, Congress in March 2011 passed a law opening the door to privatization of the entire country’s schools.

Labor rights are under intense assault as part of this economic agenda. In November 2010 a law went into effect encouraging employers to convert permanent, full-time jobs into part-time and temporary employment—under which workers will no longer be eligible for healthcare and will lose the right to organize a union. A complaint to the US Labor Department filed by the AFL-CIO under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) this past March documents a sea of systematic violations of the most basic labor rights since the coup, including the firing of hundreds of workers for attempting to organize unions, failure of employers to pay the minimum wage and failure to pay workers altogether. Honduran workers “have seen little meaningful enforcement of their labor rights, as national labor laws are ineffective and violated with impunity,” the filing concludes.

Perhaps most extreme is a new “Model Cities” law, passed in July, which allows for autonomous economic zones in which the Honduran Constitution, legal code and most basic democratic governance structures won’t apply, and where transnational investors will be free to invent their own entire society.

Within the State Department, the policy train is being driven by Bush-era experts on Latin America, still in power, working hand in glove with the Cuban-American right, whose leaders have celebrated the Honduran coup as a successful pushback against the democratically elected left and center-left governments that have come to power all over Latin America in the past fifteen years. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, echoing their arguments, attacked Obama in December for allegedly supporting Zelaya during the coup: “When Honduras wanted to toss out their pro-Marxist president, our president stood with him.”

The ultimate responsibility, though, lies with President Obama and Secretary Clinton, who are using Honduras to reassert US power in the hemisphere.

* * *

Hondurans living under the US gun have denounced the increased militarization. In a scathing article in response to Biden’s visit titled “Obedience,” Cofadeh declared: “The drug war is only a pretext for a greater military occupation by the United States and to block the wave of political change driven by the national resistance.”

After enduring three years of repression, though, the people who make up the resistance wave are deeply exhausted. Nonetheless, they continue to pour into the streets—something that requires great courage, since the marches are often met with tear gas and beatings. In the last week of March alone, bus drivers, taxi drivers, lesbians and gays, electrical workers, teachers and students all demonstrated. Earlier in the month employees occupied the famous Mayan ruins at Copán, protesting a new law giving municipalities control over historical artifacts in their jurisdictions.

All the diverse elements that came together after the coup to form the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) are still present, although the exhilarating coalition of the first two years after the coup is now in some ways disarticulated. These groups include the indigenous movement, the Garifuna Afro-indigenous people, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people’s movement, as well as Feminists in Resistance, Lawyers in Resistance, Judges in Resistance, and pretty much anything else in Resistance—all backed up by an extraordinary alternative media culture. Zelaya was allowed to return in May 2011; his wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, is the presumed presidential candidate of LIBRE, a new political party founded by the FNRP. On May Day, hundreds of thousands filled the streets in marches organized by LIBRE and all three labor federations.

The resistance, moreover, still thrives in Honduran popular culture. To give just one delightful example: by tradition, Hondurans on New Year’s Eve construct and then ritually burn figurines representing the bad things that have happened to them in the previous year. The first year after the coup, dolls representing Micheletti, the dictator, were all over the place; last year it was Lobo. This year, protesters audaciously constructed a life-sized cardboard police car with two stuffed cloth bodies in the back representing the rector’s murdered son and his friend. Another group built a tank with Lobo and the head of the corrupt state-owned electrical company popping out on top. Honduran newspapers displayed photos of the figures all over the country.

* * *

For the Honduran people and their allies in the United States and beyond, the path forward is as tough as it gets. There are no easy solutions. Human rights defenders, from Cofadeh to the UN to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have all called on the Honduran government to implement immediate measures guaranteeing the most basic rights. These include the following demands: stop repressing the opposition with tear gas, wiretapping, harassment and extrajudicial killings. Enforce the law, including labor rights. Clean up the prisons. Purge the judiciary, the police and the military of known criminals. Enact real agrarian reform.

But who will do that when President Lobo and the Honduran Congress, themselves allegedly interlocked with the drug trade and organized crime, clearly lack the ability and political will to do so—and the United States supports them? Hondurans in the opposition underscore that the only way forward is a complete reconstitution of the Honduran state from below, through a democratically composed constitutional convention, like those successfully undertaken in other Latin American countries in recent years.

In the interim, Cofadeh and prominent voices in Honduran civil society are calling loudly for a suspension of US and other countries’ aid to the Honduran military and police. “Stop feeding the beast,” as Rector Julieta Castellanos famously demanded in November.

Alas, we’re in the 1980s all over again, when the United States under President Ronald Reagan favored right-wing governments over democracy movements in Latin America. The implications of the Honduran coup’s success are ominous. As Tirza Flores Lanza—a former appeals court magistrate in San Pedro Sula, who was fired with four other judges and magistrates for opposing the coup—put it: “The coup d’état in Honduras destroyed the incipient democracy that, with great effort, we were constructing, and revived the specter of military dictatorships that are now once again ready to pounce throughout Latin America.”

Clarification
Dana Frank’s article, “Honduras: Which Side is the US On?”, included a portion of a statement from Miguel Facussé, owner of Grupo Dinant. Here is Facussé’s complete response to a question about what role his security guards played in a November 15, 2010 incident at the El Tumbador farm in which five campesinos were killed:

“The group [of campesinos] informed the security guards on site, who were employees of a third-party provider, that they would open fire on the guards and other workers present if they did not abandon their posts and allowed them to seize the land within five minutes. Many of the campesinos, armed with illegal weapons, including AK-47s, opened fire on the guards and workers, who were forced to defend themselves. Unfortunately, four campesinos were killed in the gun battle, while a fifth one was found the following day near the plantation. While all the victims were shot with AK-47s, none of the guards were carrying such weapons, as they only carry revolvers and shot guns.”

Contrary to Facussé’s claims, two witnesses have testified to human rights observers that the campesinos were unarmed and that Grupo Dinant security guards used AK-47s to ambush and kill the campesinos; one testified that an M-60 was used as well. According to a fact-finding mission report by FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), among other groups, the Honduran government did not release ballistic reports for the arms confiscated from the security guards. No investigation or prosecution of the killings was concluded by Honduran authorities.

Read this article in Spanish.
TAKE ACTION: End All US Police and Military Aid to Honduras

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This article appeared in the June 11, 2012 edition of The Nation.

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