Hillary, Honduras, and the Murder of My Friend Berta

[Judi Lynn]

86. So great reading your information, Octofish. Even the expression "the question of Zelaya" tells us

something wrong was happening. Unbelievable!

First, here's another of your posts linking DU'er magbana's excellent work, which is deeply interesting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x18819

Little mentioned name "Bennett Ratcliff", isn't it, will be looking for more if I can. You have to wonder how many of these creeps there are.

EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton sold out Honduras: Lanny Davis, corporate cash, and the real story about the death of a Latin American democracy

Want to know why Clinton's State Dept. failed to help an elected leader? Follow the money and stench of Lanny Davis

Matthew Pulver



. . .

One of those strategic partners appears to have been Clinton family legal pitbull, Lanny Davis, deployed as an auxiliary weapon against the rightful, legal, democratically elected president of Honduras. Davis famously defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings, and he’s been on Team Clinton for decades, most recently serving as a booster for Hillary’s campaign in its early days.

Davis, along with another close Clinton associate, Bennett Ratcliff, launched a Washington lobbying offensive in support of the coup government and its oligarchic backers, penning a Wall Street Journal op-ed, testifying before a Congressional committee, and undoubtedly knocking on office doors on Capitol Hill, where he enjoys bipartisan connections, which valuable asset he demonstrated during his committee hearing.

“If you want to understand who the real power behind the (Honduran) coup is, you need to find out who’s paying Lanny Davis,” said Robert White, former ambassador to El Salvador, just a month after the coup. Speaking to Roberto Lovato for the American Prospect, Davis revealed who that was: “My clients represent the CEAL, the (Honduras Chapter of) Business Council of Latin America.” In other words, the oligarchs who preside over a country with a 65 percent poverty rate. The emerging understanding, that the powerful oligarchs were behind the coup, began to solidify, and the Clinton clique’s allegiances were becoming pretty clear. If you can believe it, Clinton’s team sided with the wealthy elite.

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/08/exclusive_hillary_clinton_sold_out_honduras_lanny_davis_corporate_cash_and_the_real_story_about_the_death_of_a_latin_america_democracy/

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The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup


The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.

July 23, 2009|Mark Weisbrot | Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. (www.cepr.net).

Powerful special interests have flexed their muscles and confronted President Obama on the most important legislative priorities of his domestic agenda. But this kind of politics-by-influence-peddling doesn't stop at the water's edge. And in foreign policy, the consequences can be more immediate, violent and deadly.

Meet Lanny Davis, Washington lawyer and lobbyist, former legal counsel to President Clinton and avid campaigner for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. He has been hired by a coalition of Latin American business interests to represent the dictatorship that ousted elected President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in a military coup and removed him to Costa Rica on June 28.

Davis is working with Bennett Ratcliff, another lobbyist with a close relationship to Hillary Clinton who is a former senior executive for one of the most influential political and public relations firms in Washington. In the current mediation effort hosted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the coup-installed government did not make a move without first consulting Ratcliff, an unnamed source told the New York Times.

Davis and Ratcliff have done an amazing public relations job so far. Americans, relying on media reports, are likely to believe that Zelaya was ousted because he tried to use a referendum to extend his term of office. This is false.

More:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/23/opinion/oe-weisbrot23

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A coup for lobbyists at the White House
By Rick Attig, The Oregonian
on August 05, 2009 at 6:38 AM, updated August 05, 2009 at 6:39 AM

. . .

Bennett Ratcliff, another Clinton White House connection, was a key adviser to the coup leader Micheletti during the Costa Rica negotiations. According to Ratcliff's firm's bio, he "created TV and radio advertisements for President Bill Clinton's 1992 and 1996 Presidential campaigns." Firm partner Melissa Ratcliff "worked as communications strategist for The White House during the Clinton Administration." Their firm promises "access to key decision makers and influencers."

More:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/a_coup_for_lobbyists_at_the_wh_1.html

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Ex-Clinton aides advising Honduran coup regime

By Bill Van Auken
15 July 2009

Ever since the military abducted President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28 and expelled him from the country, the Obama administration has cast itself as a steadfast defender of “democracy” in Honduras.

The real nature of that defense has become somewhat clearer with the news that key former aides to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have surfaced as top advisers to the illegal regime led by Roberto Micheletti, which was installed by the coup.

Ginger Thompson of the New York Times reported from San Jose, Costa Rica Sunday that in organizing the first sessions of a US-brokered mediation exercise between the ousted President Zelaya and the leader of those who overthrew him, Micheletti, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias instructed both men to appear at his residence with just four advisers.

“On Thursday morning, Mr. Micheletti showed up with six, adding an American public relations specialist who has done work for former President Bill Clinton and the American’s interpreter, and an official close to the talks said the team rarely made a move without consulting him,” Thompson reported.

The PR man was identified as Bennett Ratcliff of San Diego. Thompson quoted an official close to the talks as saying that “Every proposal that Micheletti’s group presented was written or approved by the American [Ratcliff].”

Perhaps even more significantly, Lanny Davis has emerged as among Washington’s most prominent defenders and spokesmen for the Honduran coup regime, acting as a lobbyist for the Honduran branch of the extreme right-wing Latin American Business Council.

Davis has been closely tied to the Clintons since he attended Yale Law School together with them in 1970. Between 1996 and 1998, he served as President Clinton’s special counsel. And in the 2008 presidential campaign, he served as one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent fundraisers and surrogates in attacking her principal rival, Barack Obama.

It is inconceivable that such figures would be playing such a prominent role in advising and defending the coup regime in Honduras without receiving a green light from both Secretary of State Clinton and the Obama White House.

More:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/07/hond-j15.html

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Bennett Ratcliff

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Just found this YouTube. I have seen the still photo taken once it was in place. They are across the street from Lanny Davis' offices.