Monday, September 28, 2009

Newsbytes and comments

1. Besieged Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has been the subject of a smear campaign launched by the Miami Herald, Washington Post, and New York Times, all supporters of right-wing juntas like the one that is now stomping its fascist jack boot on the people of Honduras. Zelaya has been ridiculed for claiming that Israeli security advisers in Honduras were responsible for the use of cell phone jamming devices and toxic gas on the Brazilian embassy.

Zelaya is correct on both charges, contrary to the fantasies of the Miami, New York, and Washington oligarch newspaper. Weapons and CS gas used by the Hondurans against the Brazilian embassy is reportedly being supplied by a longtime Israeli businessman in Honduras, Yehuda Leitner, the owner of the firms Alfacom and Intrecom. In the 1980, Leitner, operating under the Mossad cover of manager of an agricultural firm in Honduras, Acensa & Shemesh Agrotech, was funneling weapons to the Nicaraguan contras and Honduran death squad Battalion 3-16, set up under the aegis of the CIA and U.S. ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte. Leitner denied at the time that he was an arms trafficker, insisting he was merely a "melon trafficker."

The Israeli weapons firm that funneled the weapons for Leitner was International Security and Defence Systems (ISDS), started in 1982 by Leo Gleser, an Israel Defense Force and Mossad veteran. ISDS specialized in interrogations and supervision of prisoners in Latin America, that is torture and illegal detention. ISDS also, curiously, provided security services to Venezuelan oil companies shortly before the 2002 abortive coup against President Hugo Chavez. The CIA and U.S. Special Operations Forces fomented anti-Chavez labor strikes and protests among the oil workers' unions prior to the coup. ISDS benefited greatly from security contracts with U.S. firms in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Leitner has also been associated with another Mossad front company in Tegucigalpa, Interseg, with its address at Col. El Prado, Edif. SYRE, 2nd. piso P.O.Box: 30122 Tegucigalpa M.D.C. The firm was actually recommended as a supplier of security equipment by the U.S. State Department's U.S. Foreign and Commercial Service in 1998.

The cell phone jammers used by the Honduran military on the Brazilian embassy are C-Guard units made by NetLine Communications Inc. of Tel Aviv. One was found on the roof of a home next to the Brazilian embassy and confiscated by Zelaya supporters and taken into the Brazilian embassy as proof of Israeli involvement with the Honduran junta. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) bans the use of such devices in the United States.

2. At a press conference at the UN last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was asked why he is shutting down television stations in his country if he says he believes in democracy. Chavez asked the questioner what TV station he shut down. The answer was "RTV." Chavez corrected the reporter and said it was RCTV to which she was referring and he said he did not shut down the strongly anti-Chavez station but transferred its broadcasting licenses to 34 community-based TV stations that broadcast content heavy on public interest matters. The main staple of RCTV, which continues to broadcast unfettered on cable, is soap operas. RCTV backed the April 2002 abortive U.S.-supported coup against Chavez.