http://quotha.net/node/1822 Law Professors on Crack, "Civilian Control over the Military" & more NED Tue, 06/07/2011 - 09:59 AP
>From the LA Times yesterday, Fixing Honduras: The crisis that led to President Manuel Zelaya's ouster underscores the importance of strengthening constitutional controls over both the military and the executive. Three law professor "experts" (including an author of the Iraqi constitutiongreat creds) tell Hondurans what to do, since the past two years have been pure tranquility in that country since the "crisis" of June 2009: The relative calm of the last two years in Honduras has brought with it the opportunity to engage in unpressured analysis of these issues. Reform is needed now because it would not be possible to make it happen under the pressures of a crisis. Honduras should seize the moment to make improvements that can help keep democracy safe in moments of crisis. Their analysis rest on claims so unequivocally conterfactual it's difficult to know where to begin. What's of particular interest to me, however, is the singular focus with which agents of the USG like the Truth Commission [after all, as former CIA agent and John Kerry aide Fulton Armstrong said to me in a meeting last year where he also complained that he'd already done too much for that "shit-ass little country" Honduras before badmouthing me all over the Hill, "I got Eddy [Stein] a million bucks and said 'Make this thing work!'"]and their hired lackeys like these onesparrot the empty argument for civilian control over the armed forces, as if: 1. in Honduras there were citizen control over any part of the government in the "democratic" sense implied, that would make this anything more than lip service; 2. there were a single reason to maintain a military in Honduras, other than to suppress free speech and opposition to neoliberal policies by harassing, shooting at, teargassing, disappearing, torturing and carrying out targeted assassinations of nurses, teachers, students, *indigenas*, * campesinos* and other Resistance members; 3. we had civilian control over the military in the United States! I don't even have bloody representation here in the colony of DC, let alone any say whatsoever in the fact that 86% of federal resources is controlled by the DoD<http://washingtontechnology.com/Blogs/Inside-DOD/List/Blog-List.aspx?Page=5>. When the valiant NED starts demanding civilian control over the military here, maybe I'll start taking it seriously there. What's worrisome about this discourse is how hard the USG in all its forms is pushing it. State has been harping on it since before the NED-financed and run 2009 elections (orchestrated in collaboration with State's Craig Kelly et al), as is made clear in Wikileaks cables, and the NED has been pushing the hell out of the issue, as I mentioned earlier re: Julio Rank Wright's obsession with the topic <http://quotha.net/node/1793>. I also mentioned earlier CEDOH's conference in March <http://quotha.net/node/1618>, funded by the NED, on the same topic. There's another CEDOH conference tomorrow (see flyer at bottom of this email). Here is the vague explanation CEDOH gives for its NED-funded program, in whichlike Noah Feldman, David Landau, Brian Sheppard and the Stein Truth Commissionit refuses to state a coup actually took place: Strengthening of Civilian Control over the Armed Forces and the Defense Sector in Honduras <http://www.cedoh.org/proyectos/FFAA/FFAA.html> In the aftermath of the events of June 2009, many leaders of civil society have demanded more debate on the topic of the role of military personnel and the Defense sector in Honduras, and about the reforms necessary for strengthening democracy within a State of Law in the country. Responding to those demands, CEDOH will use the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED by its English initials) until September 2011 to lead the effort with the aim of analyzing how civil society can play a more important role in efforts to ensure civilian control over members of the military. CEDOH will carry out a series of events directed at providing national and international context about the role of military members in the crisis of June, 2009. Based on the results of these meetings, CEDOH will prepare a book that will become a significant source for needed reforms in the Defense sector while Honduras and its citizens seek to reconstruct their democratic institutions. - Objective: Strengthen the capacity of civil society to promote a pluralistic and participatory dialogue about the Defense sector and formulate proposals for effective reform. ------------------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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