What's Behind Sen. Kerry's Honduras Information Ban?

According to Congressional travel records, House and Senate members spent 6,910 days on "official travel" overseas in the first three-quarters of 2009, spending an estimated $9.4 million. They hit the obvious-Iraq and Afghanistan-but also those bastions of American security concern Scotland, Morocco, Denmark and Sweden.

But when Sen. Jim DeMint tried to visit Honduras, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry forbade an official trip, cutting off funds for the flight-an unprecedented step for a committee chairman. Sen. Kerry then tried to exchange permission for the trip for the release of DeMint's hold on two administration appointees - a bribe the DeMint declined to pay and he went without "authorization." No matter to Sen. Kerry. "We made our point,'" Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones told The Boston Globe. "The authorization was not going to come from Chairman Kerry."

Why is it so important for Sen. Kerry NOT to have on-the-ground information about Honduras?

You remember Honduras-in June the country's supreme court removed a president who tried to tamper with its constitution through an illegal referendum. The U.S. government called it a coup, cut off millions of dollars in aid, threatened more, stripped its diplomatic visas, stood with Hugo Chávez and Daniel Ortega in supporting Honduras's ouster from the Organization of American States and trashing in the UN Human Rights Committee, and met with its legally deposed president, Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya then slipped back into the country and has since been raving about being poisoned by Israelis.

Regardless of Sen. Kerry's opinion of events, he couldn't have forbidden the trip because of the nature of the interim Honduran government. Congressmen and Senators have graced the courts even of vile dictators. Seven Congressmen visited the Castro brothers in February; Nancy Pelosi stood shoulder-to-shoulder in Kuneitra with Bashar Assad; Kerry himself went to Gaza; Arlen Specter visited Saddam Hussein just before the first Gulf War. Myanmar-among the worst human rights violators-had a visit from Sen. Webb with the blessing of the Committee and the President. All in the interest of fact-finding on the ground.

But Honduras, and its interim president Roberto Micheletti, is a leper.

In the meantime, the interim Honduran government, with support from the its supreme court, parliament (minus only the three members of the Communist Party) and independent Election Commission, is continuing plans for the previously scheduled presidential election in November and the previously scheduled change in government in January 2010. Mr. Micheletti is not running.

You might think the U.S. State Department and Senate would have an interest in ensuring that those elections are free, fair and democratic-resolving the dilemma of how to undo the coup, if there was a coup. You might think the United States would send election observers so that we would have on-the-ground information. You might think the information Sen. DeMint brings back could be put to good use. But the State Department, with Sen. Kerry in harness, has a priori deemed the election unacceptable, election observers unnecessary and Sen. DeMint obstructionist. (They DO, on the other hand, accept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the "elected" leader of Iran.) It appears that only the restoration of Zelaya to the delight of his patrons in Venezuela and Nicaragua will assuage the wrath of the State Department and Sen. Kerry.

Facts on the ground and Sen. DeMint be damned.

"...if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."-J.F. Kerry

"Under questioning from the Committee, Kerry referred to the democratically elected government of South Vietnam -- our allies -- as a "dictatorial regime, the Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime," while respectfully calling the North Vietnamese communist regime we were fighting by its oxymoronic official name, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the murderous Viet Cong's political arm by their preferred "Provisional Revolutionary Government.":
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/chavez042804.asp
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June, 1970 -- Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), a national veterans group that is part of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. The PCPJ is a broad coalition of local and national organizations, including the Communist Party, USA, "committed to conducting demonstrations aimed at ending the war in Indochina, and poverty, racism and injustice at home." The VVAW, CCI and PCPJ all have headquarters at 156 Fifth Avenue in New York City. VVAW Executive Secretary Al Hubbard, a former Black Panther, is also on the coordinating committee of the PCPJ. Hubbard soon appoints Kerry to the VVAW's Executive Committee, bypassing the normal election process.
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline
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Fact: The Black Panthers were revolutionary communists...

From the Maoist Internationist Movement:
[1960s/original] Black Panther Party [BPP] Archives
From the article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS

"On May 1st, May Day [1969], the day of the gigantic Free Huey rally, two of Alioto's top executioners vamped on the brothers from the Brown Community who were attending to their own affairs. These brothers, who are endowed with the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party defended themselves from the racist pig gestapo.

Pig Joseph Brodnik received his just reward with a big hole in the chest. Pig Paul McGoran got his in the mouth which was not quite enough to off him.

The revolutionary brothers escaped the huge swarm of pigs with dogs, mace, tanks and helicopters, proving once again that "the spirit of the people is greater than the man's technology."

To these brothers the revolutionary people of racist America want to say, by your revolutionary deed you are heroes, and that you are always welcome to our camp."

Source: Maoist Internationist Movement
Article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS (May 11, 1969):
http://web.archive.org/web/20060717050055/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/index.html
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November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience:

"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline
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John Kerry and the VVAW--Hanoi's American Puppets?
"Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets
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Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Complete FBI files:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI
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RE: Ramsey Clark

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Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under democrat LBJ with convicted terrorist enabler/commie lawyer, Lynne Stewart, at an "anti-war" rally in Harlem NY on March 19, 2005, the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. The event was organized by the Workers World Party and "Troops Out Now". TON is an "anti-war" (pro-communist) Workers World Party front group.

Yes, that is the current chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, DEMOCRAT Charlie Rangel, speaking at the podium at this Workers World Party event in 2005.

http://www.workers.org/march19/index2.html
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Workers World
55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news
http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
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Also from the website of the Workers World Party:

"Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il...

With his leadership [Kim Il Sung], the Korean people defeated the Japanese colonial occupation and soon after brought about the first defeat of the U.S. imperialist military machine. ...

Workers World Party values our close, comradely relations with the Workers Party of Korea very highly. We are proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement. ..."

With comradely solidarity, Sam Marcy Chairperson, Workers World Party" (1994):
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sam94/1994html/s940721.htm

(a little history)

(DeMint Statement on Fact-Finding Trip to Honduras)

October 2, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement after he returned from a fact-finding mission to Honduras. Senator DeMint led a delegation of U.S. Congressmen including Aaron Schock (R-Illinois), Peter Roskam (R-Illinois), and Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado). They met with Honduran President Roberto Micheletti, members of the Honduran Supreme Court, leading candidates for the upcoming November 29 elections, election officials, and Honduran business and civic leaders.

"We had a very productive trip, and we will have more to say next week after we have briefed our colleagues in the House and Senate. But for now, I can say that we saw a government working hard to follow the rule of law, uphold its constitution, and to protect democracy for the people of Honduras. We are very encouraged by what we saw and we hope to be able to work with our administration to support the upcoming elections,” said Senator DeMint.

(DeMint Statement on Kerry & Obama Administration Blocking Fact-Finding Trip to Honduras)

October 1, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement after Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and President Obama’s State Department blocked Senator DeMint’s planned fact-finding trip to Honduras at the last minute.

“These bullying tactics by the Obama administration and Senator Kerry must stop, and we must be allowed to get to the truth in Honduras. Not a single U.S. Senator has traveled to Honduras to learn the facts on the ground. And the Obama administration won't allow Honduran officials or even businessmen to come to the U.S., either. While this administration has failed to act decisively in Afghanistan, it is has no problem cracking down on a democratic ally and one of the poorest nations in Latin America."

“Meanwhile, a thorough report from the Law Library of Congress directly contradicts President Obama’s snap decision about the legality of then-President Zelaya’s removal from office in June. Now, President Obama and Democrats' blind support for this would-be dictator and friend of Hugo Chavez will prevent members of Congress from learning the truth first hand.”

From Washington Post, June 3, 2003:

JOHN KERRY: HUNTER, DREAMER, REALIST

By Laura Blumenfeld

(SNIP)

. . . A close associate hints: There’s a secret compartment in Kerry’s briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case.

“Who told you?” he demanded as he reached inside. “My friends don’t know about this.”

The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying.

“My good luck hat,” Kerry said, happy to see it. “Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia.”

Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead. His blue button-down shirt and tie clashed with the camouflage. He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun. He looked silly, yet suddenly his campaign message was clear: Citizen-soldier. Linking patriotism to public service. It wasn’t complex after all; it was Kerry.

He smiled and aimed his finger: “Pow.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59559-2003May30?language=printer

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