How Hillary Clinton Militarized US Policy in Honduras

[think]

Some brief excerpts from the article. Bold added for emphasis.

How Hillary Clinton Militarized US Policy in Honduras

By Tim Shorrock - YESTERDAY 1:19 PM

She used a State Department office closely involved with counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq to aid the coup regime in Honduras.

In 2012, as Honduras descended into social and political chaos in the wake of a US-sanctioned military coup, the civilian aid arm of Hillary Clinton’s State Department spent over $26 million on a propaganda program aimed at encouraging anti-violence “alliances” between Honduran community groups and local police and security forces.

The program, called “Honduras Convive,” was designed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to reduce violent crimes in a country that had simultaneously become the murder capital of the world and a staging ground for one of the largest deployments of US Special Operations forces outside of the Middle East.

It was part of a larger US program to support the conservative government of Pepe Lobo, who came to power in 2009 after the Honduran military ousted the elected president, José Manuel Zelaya, in a coup that was widely condemned in Central America. In reality, critics say, the program was an attempt by the State Department to scrub the image of a country where security forces have a record of domestic repression that continues to the present day.

~Snip~

In addition, a key part of the project was subcontracted to a company owned by David Kilcullen, who was the senior counterinsurgency adviser to Army General David Petraeus in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Kilcullen’s research methodology, according to a contract proposal I obtained, was “built around a streamlined set of metrics” that provide a “manageable method for assessing counterinsurgency campaigns that can be replicated and customized in other insecure environments.” The contract was submitted to Reabold on October 16, 2012...

~Snip~

The players in Honduras Convive provide a glimpse into the privatized world of covert operations managed by USAID and OTI, and how they dovetail with broader US foreign-policy goals of supporting governments friendly to US economic and strategic interests. They also show how Hillary Clinton might manage US foreign policy as president.

Read more:
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-hillary-clinton-militarized-us-policy-in-honduras/

[Peace Patriot]

1. Hillary Clinton has already damaged US foreign policy as Sec of State.

She will continue to do so, if she manages to get back into the White House (an iffy prospect even if the Republican Party disarray continues--she is THAT unpopular with Independents--the largest voting bloc in the country--with young people, who almost universally detest her, and with many older Democrats as well).

I also think that she sabotaged President Obama on a number of matters.

Honduras/ Latin America

Obama came into office with the stated goal of improving U.S./Latin American relations (which were, of course, in the toilet after eight years of Cheney and Rumsfeld). Clinton's support for the Honduran coup ended that Obama goal before he could even begin. (Universally condemned in Latin America.) Not until recently have he and Kerry been able to do anything to turn it around (visit to Cuba; support of the Colombia/FARC peace talks).

Libya/the Middle East

In Libya in particular, and also in her "regime change" insistence in Syria, she gave Obama absolutely the wrong advice and proceeded to implement a policy of vast destabilization and chaos right out of the "Project for a New American Century" playbook. PNAC was Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld's bluebook for occupying the Middle East (and its oil fields) after DESTABILIZING the ME. She was also belligerent toward Iran, and may have bought into PNAC's goal of invading, nuking or whatever needs to be done to occupy Iran. And Kerry, once again, seems to be trying to UNDO the damage Clinton did.

Her neocon advisers

She has HENRY FUCKING KISSINGER, and ROBERT (PNAC) KAGAN as her foreign policy advisers. Good God! I don't know what Obama thinks of this, but he is certainly not their kind of president.

Her private email server

Finally, she set up a private email server which circumvented government security and was probably intended to evade FOIA laws. Using this server, she communicated on foreign policy issues (including top secret docs) with Sydney Blumenthal, whom the Clintons hired at the Clinton Foundation AFTER OBAMA HAD BANNED HIM FROM THE STATE DEPT.

She was running her own shop (as was said about Rumsfeld in his war with the CIA). And that "shop" seems to have been at odds with President Obama on a number of important matters. Further, it has threatened his final year as President with what could be a major scandal--an octopus-like scandal with many tentacles, including Clinton using the State Dept. to extract big donations from foreign governments (such as Saudi Arabia) to the Clinton Foundation, in exchange for favorable deals pending before the Sec of State. Also, that a presidential candidate was so cavalier with national security as to conduct business on a hackable server in her home is a scandal in itself, and has held the FBI's interest for over a year now. (I suspect that they're also interested in the Clinton Foundation.)

Obama has been "scandal free" (as to anything the Corrupt Media would pick up on). Not any more. He let this shit go on, whether to give her enough rope to hang herself, or because he was seriously swamped with the global financial meltdown and the 2 clusterfuck wars he inherited from the Bush junta, in his first term, during her Secretaryship. He seems generally on the same page with Clinton (TPP, for instance--which she will surely implement, whatever she says about it from day to day) and other matters. He's a corporatist, too. He is not averse to insurance-run health care or drone bombing villages and he has said little or nothing about the ongoing murders of peaceful activists in Honduras. So I don't know where he stands on Clinton. He is a hard man to read. We'll see what happens with his FBI and DOJ.

[BreakfastClub]

2. Don't you mean Obama damaged foreign policy? Yep, she worked for him. sorry. nt

[think]

3. Was Hillary just a figure head as SoS?

[Peace Patriot]

4. Clinton set up a private email server, outside of secure government channels,

and on that server communicated with Sydney Blumenthal about foreign policy, including the exchange of top secret documents. Obama had banned Blumenthal from the State Department. The Clintons then hired Blumenthal at the Clinton Foundation. She was sabotaging Obama's order.

On how many other matters was she sabotaging Obama? I'm quite certain she sabotaged him on Honduras. Obama had pledged to improve US/Latin American relations (which were very bad following the Bush junta). The Honduran coup occurred in June '09, only six months into his first term. He was absolutely beset with problems--global financial meltdown, two Bush clusterfuck wars. She took that opportunity to SUPPORT this fascist coup. The U.S. was reviled across Latin America for supporting the coup. After Clinton left the Sec of State's office, Obama and Kerry re-started Obama's original goal--to improve relations with the region--the visit to Cuba, etc.

We know that she argued Obama down about the clusterfuck in Libya. She gave him very bad advice. Others went along with it. I don't know what-all went into his decision to ok this horrible mess. All I know is that Clinton joined forces with others to get him to back down and agree to it. She was the one who crowed over it ("We came, we saw, he died!"--and she laughs. It's on vid. No feeling whatsoever for the victims of the destabilization--millions!)

She gave Obama equally bad advice on Syria. Destabilize yet another stable government in the ME (neocon game plan). The Syrian government fought back and had/has stronger allies than Libya did (for instance, Russia). The U.S. brinksmanship in Syria, which Clinton still supports, is very dangerous. She also engaged in brinkmanship on Iran. It seems to me that Kerry is now trying to undo damage that Clinton did in trying to destabilize the ME. (Incidentally, nothing could be more dangerous to Israel, whose RW neocon government also seems to want destabilization all around them. I think that policy is driven by war profiteers on both sides.)

Yes, it's Obama's presidency and the buck stops there, as they say. But he had a slyly maneuvering Sec of State--who probably got her position as a political favor--who violated at least one order of his (banned Blumenthal as adviser to the State Dept.), and whose policies are clearly more warmongering than his. I don't think he bears much blame, if any, for Honduras. Libya and Syria, he should have known better. How MUCH was she sabotaging and/or lying to him? We don't know that yet. What is his view of her really bold corruption as to the Clinton Foundation? We don't know. He's a hard man to read. But his FBI and DoJ is very possibly investigating that corruption, along with the security issues of the server.