Unconventional Weapons in Honduras: the Israeli Factor

Honduras is witnessing the use of a variety of unconventional weapons - toxic gases, long range sound devices, and cell phone jamming devices. These have been linked to Israeli suppliers, raising questions about the role of Israel in Honduras.  Observers recall the important Israeli role in the creation, training, and arming of the Colombian paramilitaries, as outlined in the Colombia section below.

The realities described in many of the articles below get at an issue all too often ignored in the uproar over anti-semitic statements made by managing director Romero of Radio Globo, as well as the charges of anti-semitism made against Zelaya and others. What are Israeli military doing in Honduras?

Honduras

Israel to recognize elections in Honduras  11/29/2009 RIA Novosti: "Israel became the fifth country to officially announce that it would recognize the results of Sunday's elections in Honduras, the Honduran TV has said. Many countries and international bodies have warned they would not recognize election results if the Honduran polls are held under Roberto Micheletti's presidency."

Ros-Lehtinen, máxima representante del lobby israelí contra un informe de la ONU  11/5/2009 Honduras en Resistencia: "Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, la politiquera yanqui de origen cubano que salió a defender el dictador hondureño Roberto Micheletti y que se hizo una carrera denigrando a Cuba, se convirtió en máxima representante del lobby israeli en el Congreso al obtener la condena del Informe Goldstone presentado en la ONU que reconoce el carácter genocida de de los crímenes de Israel."


Open Letter from President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales in Relation to the Jewish Community in Honduras  10/5/2009 NarcoNews: "It would be worthwhile to consult the Government Secretaries of my cabinet about the accusations that I have anti-Semitic positions. When the Honduran people elected me President, I received criticism from some anti-Semites, because I named, among other religions, some very talented and qualified Hondurans who practice Judaism, as members of the Government Cabinet. I named as Government Secretary in the Offices of the Presidency, the one who would be my right hand in the government, Yani Benjamin Rosenthal; who gave me strong support in managing the Economic sector, this close collaborator invited me to the Bat Mitzvah ceremony of his daughter. I also named Mr. Leo Starkman as Minister of Foreign Investment and on another occasion, Minister of Energy. I also named Engineer Moises Starkman as Minister in charge of Bio-Fuels. He reminded me on one occasion of the suffering of the Jewish people in the Nazi concentration camps. This close collaborator also informed me of the significance of the expression Shabat Shalom, a greeting used by Jews to honor their sacred day of the week. Also in my government I named Mr. Jacobo Regalado Weitzembluth General Manager of the telecommunications company."

Anti-Jewish statements raise concern on Honduras  10/5/2009 AP: "The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League cited statements made by ousted President Manuel Zelaya as well as the news director of a radio station that was closed by the interim government in Honduras and by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among others." [ADL granted an award in 1985 to Purple Gang leader Moe Dalitz for his substantial contributions to ADL.]

Fascism, (counter-)fascism, lobbyists, anti-semitism and the State  10/5/2009 Quotha: "So on the one hand, there is anti-Semitism (though primarily in the old-school sense of anti-Levantism, not tied solely to Jewishness) among the resistance. And that is Bad. Members of the resistance are actively struggling to figure out how to create a unifying narrative and practice that does not replicate the racist rhetoric and practices of the de facto government. Although the physical, structural and everyday violence in Honduras today is overwhelmingly directed toward the racialized poor, the coup financiers' newly-hired Zionist lobbying firm, Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates (Lanny Davis is also from a big Zionist firm) has decided to go Horowitz on Zelaya because a)he has denounced the golpistas use (which, as you saw above, they themselves celebrate) of Israeli mercenaries in the violent crackdowns on peaceful Honduran protesters and on himself and his family, and b)some of the people who are wrongly labeled as his "followers" are anti-Semitic."

Against Anti-Semitism: Right, Left, or Media-Induced  10/4/2009 NarcoNews: The normally informative Al Giordano vents against reprehensible anti-semitic comments by Radio Globo station manager Romero, who himself has a Jewish grandfather. However, he ignores the documentation on Israeli activities in Honduras and even articles on his own site delineating the Israeli role in creating, training, and arming the viciously genocidal Colombian paramilitaries, including the AUC. See "Doing the US's Dirty Work - The Colombian Paramilitaries and Israel" on NarcoNews, April, 2003.

Israel entrega a Micheletti su "arma secreta para revoltosos”  10/2/2009 Aporrea: "Era nada menos que este Screamer cuyos sonidos, efectivamente, provocaron un grave malestar, entonces inexplicable, a todas las personas presentes en la representación diplomática de Brasil, una violación evidente de todos los convenios internacionales en materia del respeto y de la protección que deben otorgar las naciones a las embajadas en su territorio. El propio presidente Zelaya acusó en varias entrevistas las tropas de la dictadura de usar tales instrumentos de represión. La prensa internacional, en mayor parte propiedad de grandes monopolios, dio poca difusión a estas informaciones…. Elemento nuevo: el contrabandista Latchinian fue liberado en el 2002 por la justicia de Bush, después de cumplir solo 18 años de la sentencia de 30 a la cual había sido condenado una gigantesca operación de narcotráfico a favor de la Contra nicaragüense."

Romeo Vásquez responsabiliza a la Policía por uso de equipo bélico en embajada de Brasil  9/29/2009 EL Libertador: "Sin tantos miramientos, el oficial en cuestión miente al hacer estas aseveraciones puesto que el Dispositivo Acústico de Largo Alcance (LRAD, siglas en inglés) se utilizó en horas de la tarde del martes (22 de septiembre), cuando el Frente de Resistencia contra el golpe de Estado ya había sido desalojado con bombas lacrimógenas por la policía, cuando el gobierno de facto ordenó el toque de queda durante más de 24 horas seguidas."

Acoustic and Chemical Attacks on the Brazilian Embassy - The Sound and Fury of the Honduran Coup  9/28/2009 Counterpunch: "Numerous reports, including Honduran News Network sources, also mentioned radioactive cesium. If the use of radioactive cesium is confirmed, the consequences are very serious. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry finds that the effects of high levels include the symptoms listed above and even coma and death. This is the notorious "day-after" effect of nuclear bombs. The agency adds that "it is reasonable to expect that individuals exposed to high levels of radiation from a source of radioactive cesium will develop the same types of cancer observed in survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan." Embassies are protected under the Vienna Convention and any violation of this is an international issue. With the notable exceptions of Colombia and the United States, all nations of the region expressed concern about the Honduran situation at the 64th UN General Assembly meeting."

Newsbytes and comments  9/28/2009 Wayne Madsen Report: "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… 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."

Israeli Firms Sell Toxins to Honduras Putschists  9/27/2009 Inside Costa Rica: "Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas denounced that two Israeli companies supplied putschists with the toxic gases thrown inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where President Manuel Zelaya is staying. "We have received information that the chemicals and arms have been supplied by Alfacom and Intercom companies, owned by Israeli Yehuda Leitner," Rodas said in press conference in thit city. After putschists soldiers threw gases inside the embassy, nearly 80 people have had headaches, vomiting, diarrhoeas, and nose bleeding over the last hours."

Honduras: el proveedor de gases israelíes, un viejo socio de la conexión Bush-Posada  9/26/2009 Cuba Debate: "Yehuda Leitner radicado en Honduras, denunciado como proveedor de armas y gases tóxicos a la dictadura hondureña de Roberto Micheletti, es un ex oficial del ejercito israelí quién perteneció en los años 80 a la red de contrabando del multimillonario Gerard Latchinian, que abastecía en armas a los cubanoamericanos Felix Rodriguez y Luis Posada Carriles en sus operaciones luego conocidas cómo escandalo Iran-Contra. Rodriguez y Posada manejaban entonces la escandalosa operación de venta de droga contra armas, encubierta por Bush George padre, vicepresidente de la administración ultraderechista de Ronald Reagan. La Canciller del gobierno constitucional de Honduras Patricia Rodas, denunció este viernes 25 de septiembre en Wastington como “fuentes de la inteligencia militar leales a Zelaya” informaron que “los químicos y armas del asedio (de Brasil en Tegucigalpa) han sido proporcionadas por las empresas Alfacom e Intercom”, propiedad del ciudadano israelí Yehuda Leitner, que “sirvió de intermediario con Israel”."

Con lanzamiento de químicos atentan contra la vida del presidente  9/25/2009 Defensores en Linea: "La circulación de químicos en el ambiente lanzados desde el exterior de la Embajada de Brasil en Honduras, provocó serios problemas de salud a las personas que se encuentran junto al presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales, este viernes en la mañana. nicialmente el Padre Tamayo relató que un helicóptero y una tanqueta habrían lanzado un químico y unos minutos después la Primera Dama, Xiomara Castro se subió en una escalera que da a la casa atrás de la embajada para comprobar y observó el equipo utilizado por los agente de la Dirección Nacional de Investigación Criminal, DNIC,militares de las Fuerzas Armadas y miembros de la Policía Nacional… Pero esas acciones ya subieron el nivel, este viernes a eso de las nueve de la mañana un helicóptero sobrevoló el lugar y al frente pasó un tanque regando químico “la gente está sangrando, tenemos mucho mareo, dolor de estómago, yo tengo la garganta apretada”, dijo casi al borde de la inconsciencia Tamayo al ser abordado por el teléfono. Mientras Xiomara Castro, primera dama de la nación relató que las personas que se mantienen con el mandatario tienen resequedad en su boca, taquicardia, picazón en todo el cuerpo, escupen y defecan sangre… Según los médicos del Frente Nacional de Resistencia el químico que se han utilizado para reprimir al pueblo hondureño es el Cecio 132 que es un neurotóxico que provoca aflojamiento de los músculos y por ende decaimiento en las personas."

Micheletti’s newest U.S./Israeli toy  9/25/2009 Machetera: "Photo Confirms the Use of Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) by Micheletti’s Troops, Against Zelaya. By Jean-Guy Allard"

"Sonic gun" used by police in Honduras now used against G-20 protesters?  9/25/2009 Democratic Underground: "WHY are the Israelis interferring in Honduras? Are they from the Israeli government or hired mercs? Does anybody know?"

"Sanitation Operation"  9/25/2009 Quotha: "Abusing again the national emergency radio system, the de facto government unbelievably claims that the severe symptoms of chemical and audio attacks among the people trapped with President Zelaya in the Brazilian Embassy were the result of a routine cleaning operation using regular cleaning chemicals and loud machinery. In a completely militarized zone, blocked off to traffic."

Deposed Honduran president accuses ‘Israeli mercenaries’  9/25/2009 Jewish Telegraph Agency: "Deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said he is being tortured by "Israeli mercenaries." The politician, who currently is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said the "mercenaries" had used a device emitting high-frequency radiation, which affected his mental and physical health. He also said they were likely to storm the building and kill him, the Miami Herald reported. Witnesses earlier had reportedly said that they saw police, who are surrounding the compound, use a satellite dish-like device nearby to emit a shrill noise, according to the Herald. A Honduran police spokesman denied any kind of radition device was being used."

Honduran Coup Regime Mocks UN Security Council with Embassy Attacks  9/25/2009 NarcoNews: "In light of those international laws, the device you see in the photograph up top, deployed by Honduran coup regime security forces at the gates of the Brazilian Embassy, offers a smoking gun of proof that the regime is violating the Vienna Convention. Narco News and its team of technical engineers and counter-surveillance consultants has identified the apparatus as the LRAD-X Remote Long Range Acoustic Device, manufactured by the American Technologies Corporation."

Ejército de Honduras usa armas electrónicas de última generación  9/24/2009 ADITAL: "Uno de ellos es el llamado "cañón de dolor" o "rayo de dolor" fabricado por la corporación ‘Raytheon’, una de las principales contratistas militares de varios ejércitos del mundo, especialmente del estadounidense, es solo un ejemplo. Cito de un sitio en Internet que nos explica mejor lo que es y cómo funciona este dispositivo. "Este es un VMADS (Sistema Activo de Negación Montado sobre Vehículo, según sus siglas en ingles) no es un arma letal, pero sí muy eficaz. Su munición consiste en haces de radiación electromagnética de 95 gigaherzios, frente a los 2.45 de un horno domestico de microondas, la persona que recibe el trallazo de energía nota una quemazón similar a la que sentiría si se aplicara una bombita sobre la piel, ya que las moléculas de agua de la epidermis impactada alcanzan una temperatura de 55ºC". "Desarrollado por el ejercicio estadounidense, el cañón sirve en teoría para dispersar multitudes, aunque las voces críticas denuncias que todavía no se conocen del todo bien sus efectos secundarios""

“Cañón sónico” para revoltosos  9/24/2009 La Tribuna, Honduras: "Pocos segundos después emite un sonido que corta el aire: La multitud agitada, cae en pánico, se tapa los oídos y se contuerce del dolor. Es la última arma secreta en dotación desde hace tiempo por el ejército de Israel, usada públicamente sólo ahora después de muchos años de experimentación."

Israeli commandos in Honduras  8/13/2009 Machetera: "We’re facing the COPEMH building, which is the professional association for middle education, and we also are speaking with Dr. René Andrés Pavón, who is the President of the Honduran Human Rights Commission (CODEH). Dick Emanuelsson (DE): Yesterday CODEH put out a news release denouncing a variety of things, among them that Micheletti’s de facto government has contracted with Israeli commandos or people to train the Honduran military/police forces. What we know from the civil war in Colombia is that these commandos have also been advising the Colombian military forces. What are the Israelis doing here?"

Coup regime steps up repression in Honduras  8/6/2009 World Socialist Web Site: "CODEH further charges that the Micheletti regime is receiving advice from an Israeli private security company on what level of violence to use against the demonstrators. It is also evident that Micheletti is surrounding himself with people who were associated with the dictatorship including the infamous Billy Joya, who is now an advisor to the de facto regime. Joya, an architect of the death squads of the 1970s, was trained by the American CIA and the Chilean fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Another human rights group, the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), has reported that the regime has assembled a death squad of 120 individuals, which trains on private ranches and includes elements associated with the Pinochet dictatorship."

Israel, Honduras and Costa Rica  8/4/2009 Third World Traveler: "Honduras was one of Israel's first arms customers in Central America. Between 1975 and 1977, this second poorest of all countries in the Western Hemisphere bought 20 French super-Mystere fighter planes from Israel. Delivered at a time when it was U.S. policy to discourage the acquisition of sophisticated weaponry in Central America, these were the first supersonic aircraft in the region; some were equipped with Israeli-made Shafrir heat-seeking missiles. The Hondurans bought a range of other Israeli arms: Arava STOL aircraft, a fleet of armored vehicles mounted with recoilless rifles, and Galil rifles and Uzi submachine guns. For all its poverty, when Ariel Sharon visited Honduras, he was calling on one of Israel's three biggest clients. In the wake of Sharon's visit came more arms and training-both in Israel and Honduras for officers, pilots and troops."

Comandos israelitas con experiencias de Palestina y Colombia capacitan a las FF.AA. de Honduras  8/3/2009 Dick Emanuelsson: “Hasta ahora lo que nosotros tenemos nos indica que la misión que ellos tienen es preparar a la Fuerzas Armadas y la policía para disuadir manifestaciones de manera agresiva y violenta, tratando de cometer crímenes de naturaleza selectiva con el fin de construir miedo, construir escenarios de terror y lograr la desmovilización de la resistencia. Otras acciones que están haciendo es lograr que algunos empleados de la empresa de seguridad privada se pongan el uniforme de la policía y cometan actos de agresión directa contra los manifestantes. Ya que el policía de alguna manera ha tenido formación para disuadir movilizaciones y es un poco temeroso al momento de agredir a los manifestantes de alguna manera algo se le ha quedado en materia de formación en derechos humanos. En cambio los guardias de seguridad son doblemente pagados y se les garantiza la impunidad. Estas son prácticas que están desarrollando utilizando la experiencia del conflicto palestino y haber puesto en práctica algunas de estas acciones en Colombia”.

Israel: The Hijack State  8/3/2009 Reds - Die Roten: [published prior to 2001] - "The new Israeli-Honduras agreement involved sophisticated jet fighters, tanks, and Galil assault rifles (a specifically anti-guerrilla weapon). Sharon’s entourage during his visit included the head of the Israeli Air Force and the Director-General of the Defence Ministry. A Honduras government spokesman said that Sharon’s visit was more positive than an earlier one from President Reagan since Sharon “sold US arms” while “Reagan only uttered platitudes, explaining that Congress was preventing him doing more.” [20] In neighbouring Guatemala an even more bloody dictator, General Rios Montt, actually boasted to an ABC television reporter that the coup which brought him to power had been so successful, “because many of our soldiers were trained by the Israelis.” [21] In the summer of 1982, as Sharon was slaughtering Palestinians in Lebanon, Montt was slaughtering 5,000 Indians in the Guatemalan countryside as part of a “counter-insurgency” campaign – aided and abetted with Israeli weaponry and Israeli-trained expertise. [22]"

Zionists "Israelis" advise the Honduran dictatorship  8/3/2009 Palestine Telegraph: "In a prense conference, Pavon accused the de facto government of hiring an Israeli private security group to advise Police about the agressive attitude that they need to have against the protesters. Pavon announced that all these illegal and violent actions are being documented by CODEH in order to denounce them in an international level."

Israeli art students show up at interesting times  7/17/2009 Wayne Madsen Report: "The reported involvement of Israeli security advisers in the coup d’état in Honduras also puts into another perspective the following report from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on the espionage activities involving Israeli art students in the months prior to 9/11."

Honduras: the Israeli Connection  7/3/2009 Middle East Reality Check: "That was then. This is right now: "A Latin American expert sent me this from a major newspaper in Honduras: "Buena noticia. Embajadas de Taiwan e Israel reconocen al nuevo gobierno de Roberto Micheletti." (Good news. The embassies of Taiwan and Israel recognize the new government of Roberto Micheletti.) ...Will death squads be roaming the land once more?"

Colombia

Israel in Colombia – Part I  3/15/2008 Machetera: "The serial killer had plenty to say about “Zionism’s firmness…which has always been used to defend itself, invade and capture territory…From there, I returned convinced that it is possible to topple Colombia’s guerrillas.” Castaño died in 2004 and recent history remembers him for what he was: one of Colombia’s bloodiest paramilitary members. However, Castaño was not alone in his training in Israel. Salvatore Mancuso, another “historical leader” of United Colombian Self-Defense (AUC, 1997), was there as well, although he is presently in prison. In the middle of the 1990’s, Mancuso organized the paramilitaries of the “Harmonious Cooperative,” financed by Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who was at that time the governor of Antioquia."

Israel en Colombia I  3/13/2008 Rebelion: "No obstante, y acaso de un modo no tan invisible, quien también sintió regocijo fue el general Israel Ziv, ex comandante del regimiento de Gaza, y el de más alto rango entre los oficiales israelíes que ocupan tareas relacionadas con el entrenamiento de personal en el gobierno colombiano. Los nexos militares entre Israel y Colombia datan del primer lustro de 1980, cuando un contingente de soldados del Batallón Colombia “… uno los peores violadores de los derechos humanos en el hemisferio occidental, recibieron entrenamiento en el desierto del Sinaí por algunos de los peores violadores de los derechos humanos en Medio Oriente”, según el investigador estadunidense Jeremy Bigwood. Experto en utilizar la ley de Libertad de Información para liberar documentos censurados por el gobierno de Estados Unidos, Bigwood observa que el entrenamiento de los jóvenes paras colombianos no podría haberse dado sin el permiso expreso de las más altas autoridades de las fuerzas de defensa de Israel."

Israel's Latin American trail of terror  6/5/2003 Third World Traveler: "I learned an infinite amount of things in Israel, and to that country I owe part of my essence, my human and military achievements" said Colombian paramilitary leader and indicted drug trafficker Carlos Castao in his ghostwritten autobiography, Mi Confesin. Castao, who leads the Colombian paramilitaries, known by their Spanish acronym AUC, the largest right-wing paramilitary force to ever exist in the western hemisphere reveals that he was trained in the arts of war in Israel as a young man of 18 in the 1980s…. Where Israel has excelled is in advising, training and running intelligence and counter-insurgency operations in the Latin American "dirty war" civil conflicts of Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and now Colombia."

Doing the US's Dirty Work - The Colombian Paramilitaries and Israel  4/8/2003 NarcoNews 

1989 Secret document from Colombian Police (DAS) regarding training of paramilitaries by Israelis and British  4/8/2003 Jeremy Bigwood: fecha de 1989

Africa

“Israel” in Africa  9/27/2009 Voltaire Net: "Israel has long been keen to capitalise on Africa’s mineral wealth. It plans to appropriate African diamonds and process them in Israel which is already the world’s second largest processor of diamonds. And if the composition of Lieberman’s entourage is anything to go by, Israel is also interested in African uranium, thorium and other radioactive elements used to manufacture nuclear fuel. In addition it is looking for new markets for its range of lightweight weapons. It also appears that not a few Israeli military pensioners are on the lookout for job opportunities as trainers of African militias, while other members of Lieberman’s delegation are facilitating contracts for Israelis to train various militias. The huge oil reserves in a number of African countries are also high on Israel’s agenda, with Tel Aviv seeking a share in exploration, extraction and export operations."