On Friday, Latin America scholars sent an urgent letter to Human Rights Watch, urging HRW to speak out on violations of human rights under the coup regime in Honduras and to conduct its own investigation.  HRW hasn’t made any statement about Honduras since July 8. One of the things Human Rights Watch should be investigating […]

On Friday nearly 100 Latin America scholars and experts sent an open letter to Human Rights Watch urging HRW to speak up about human rights violations in Honduras under the coup regime and to conduct its own investigation of these abuses.  The letters’ signers include Honduras experts Dana Frank and Adrienne Pine, Latin America experts […]

There has been very little attention in the U.S. press to repression in Honduras under the coup regime.  Hopefully, that will now change: Amnesty International issued a report yesterday documenting “serious ill-treatment by police and military of peaceful protesters” in Honduras, warning that “beatings and mass arrests are being used as a way of punishing […]

Thank you for all that you have done so far to increase U.S. pressure on the coup regime in Honduras.   While the Obama administration’s previous round of targeted sanctions demonstrated great promise in helping to reverse the coup, the administration has since appeared to back down from its position of active support for the […]

In serious contention for Dumbest Washington Consensus for September is the idea of cutting off Iran’s gas imports to pressure Iran to stop enriching uranium.  A majority of Representatives and Senators have signed on to legislation that seeks to block Iran’s gas imports, a top legislative priority for the so-called “Israel Lobby.”  But it’s a […]

Did a CID-Gallup poll last week indicate that a plurality of Hondurans support the military coup against democratically elected President Zelaya?  Yes, according to the Washington Post (July 9), the Wall Street Journal (July 10), the Christian Science Monitor (July 11), and Reuters (July 9), which all reported that the poll showed 41% in favor […]

Senator McCain, President Bush, and some of their oil industry friends are urging Americans to support overturning a 26-year ban on offshore drilling as a way to bring down gas prices.  Of course, it’s snake oil designed for what the Joe Lieberman campaign affectionately called “low information voters.” As Dean Baker and Nichole Szembrot of […]

We DO have a chance to reverse this in committee, but we urgently need to make phone calls TODAY. The Supplemental Appropriations bill is scheduled to be marked up in full committee Thursday at 9 am. The list of Members of the full Appropriations committee is given below.  If your Congressional representative is not on […]

On Friday the Senate is expected to vote on legislation passed Thursday by the House that would tighten U.S. sanctions on Iran and on our allies who trade with Iran.  This legislation would undermine the negotiations with Iran that are currently taking place in Europe.  Press reports have indicated that the talks in Europe could […]

Praise/Protest your Senator for voting for/against the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. In response to Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in heavily populated areas of Lebanon, Senators Feinstein and Leahy introduced legislation that would require recipients of such munitions not to use them in or near civilian centers.  The Cluster Munitions Amendment failed […]