The USS Stark (FFG 31) burns and lists to port on 18 May 1987, one day after the guided missile frigate was struck by two Iraqi-launched Exocet missiles. The attack killed 37 sailors.

The New Sovereign Investment Fund of Libya or of Colonel Qaddafi, there is no distinction in the money funds of Libya or Qaddafi, invested $1.3 Billion with Goldman Sachs; the bank used the funds on stock options at a variety of international banks and a collection of currency bets. Two years later, the Libyan fund had lost 98% of its value and was worth only $25.1 million.

Officials of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund were upset with Goldman Sachs and accused them of malfeasance; mainly, for making trades without authorization and misrepresenting investment deals.

In July 2008, [Mustafa] Zarti, the fund’s deputy chairman, summoned [Youssef] Kabbaj, Goldman’s North Africa chief, to a meeting with the fund’s legal and compliance staff, according to Libyan Investment Authority emails reviewed by the Journal. One person who attended the meeting says Mr. Zarti was “like a raging bull,” cursing and threatening Mr. Kabbaj and another Goldman employee. Goldman arranged for security to protect the employees until they left Libya the next day, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tip-top Goldman bosses, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein and finance chief David Viniar, scrambled to try to figure out how to fix the relationship with Libya and maintain access to its vast fortune. They also feared that word of the massive loss would spook other sovereign funds, so they offered the nation several ways to recoup the money. The last of the offers was made in a June 2010 meeting. Eight months later, the United States froze some $37 billion in Libyan assets as dictator Muammar Qaddafi turned on his rebelling people. Included in that large amount was what was left of Libya’s investment with Goldman.

In July 2008, [Mustafa] Zarti, the fund’s deputy chairman, summoned [Youssef] Kabbaj, Goldman’s North Africa chief, to a meeting with the fund’s legal and compliance staff, according to Libyan Investment Authority emails reviewed by the Journal. One person who attended the meeting says Mr. Zarti was “like a raging bull,” cursing and threatening Mr. Kabbaj and another Goldman employee. Goldman arranged for security to protect the employees until they left Libya the next day, according to people familiar with the matter.

Being enraged with a favored company of Obama might be dangerous to your position and your health; after all, Obama has the U.S. military and if he keeps his intervention small enough, he doesn’t need congressional approval.

relations between Goldman and Gaddafi became increasingly strained, the Wall Street firm made a total of three separate compensation offers to invest in the group on attractive terms between May and June of 2009, including the deal involving preferred shares. Another proposal would have given the LIA unsecured debt in Goldman, promising a stream of payments that would eventually have repaid the losses.

Over the next two years, discussions on these and a series of other compensation proposals were discussed by LIA and top-level Goldman staff – chairman Lloyd Blankfein, finance head David Viniar and European chief Michael Sherwood. However, they were unable to agree a solution and talks are thought to have eventually petered out last summer.

Now a company that can lose 98% of a 1.3 Billion Dollar investment might be first in line to receive Tarp Funds, thanks to Henry Paulson, Ex-Treasury Secretary. Tim Geitner who is connected to the Federal Reserve, who names Mark Patterson, former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs and the man replacing Geitner at the FED is William Dudley, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

Just How Close Are GS And Obama

Goldman offered Libya’s securities-wealth fund an opportunity to invest $3.7 billion in the securities firm, the paper continued, one of six options placed on the table over months of negotiations.

The proposals came at the same time Goldman had taken $5 billion in investments from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in order to pass the Federal Reserve’s “stress test” to determine whether it had to raise additional capital.

The United States is now one of the NATO allies targeting Libya with rockets in an attempt to get Qaddafi, the decades-long despot, out of power and to see a Transitional National Council take his place.

With all the money wizards of GS and the Obama Administration swapping bunks, is it possible that the financial rip off of Qaddafi was about to become an embarrassment?

What better way to get rid of an embarrassment than to take him out with missiles when he threatens his people, while ignoring other despots that are actually killing their people by the thousands, we are talking about an embarrassment of Goldman Sachs for Muhammad’s Sake! Let’s remember GS used their bailout to start making a profit, they have managed to do so well with their wizardry that they can award 28,000 employees a $600,000 bonus. We can’t lament a few rockets that can help keep the reputation of a company like GS pristine and untainted by corruption. It is imperative that we keep things in perspective.

But damn Obama’s luck, the rockets didn’t kill the Desert Fox and the maniacal fanatics of the Muslim Brotherhood didn’t pull him to pieces, now what is happening to the reputation of Goldman Sachs. Qaddafi wants his money back and the wizards of Obama and Goldman Sachs ain’t looking too clever.

Obama’s promise to rid his administration of lobbyists is a standing joke when it comes to Goldman Sachs. Geitner has reportedly chosen a former GS lobbyist Mark Patterson to be his chief of staff. Patterson worked as a registered lobbyist for GS from 2005 to April of 2010.

It’s natural for Geitner, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs to select a Goldman Sachs insider for the number 2 position. At the Treasury, Jerry Rubin of the Clinton administration, was another Goldman Sachs CEO.

The man chosen to replace Geitner at the New York Fed was W. Dudley former Chief Economist for Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs may as well be considered a part of the federal government. They paid Bill Clinton just under $950,000 for speeches between 2004 and 2007. Their Political Action Committee was the fourth largest donor to Clinton’s campaign, just below Citigroup. The Center for Responsive Politics maintains that Goldman’s Political Action Committee invested over a half million to congressional candidates in the 2008 elections, mostly Democrat incumbents. Goldman Sachs employees contributed more than $5,000,000. Obama received over $1,000,000 from GS for the 2008 election.

How quaint of Obama to promise to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration. Goldman has had a seat at the table since regulations on finance were began to be unlaced during the Clinton years, they were among the first and largest recipients of TARP funding, receiving $10 billion immediately.

In matters of the economy, we can have faith in the intellect of men like Geitner, who according to Bernanke has two main guiding principles: “Life’s about alternatives” and “A plan beats no plan”. Bernanke also has referred to Geitner’s technique to thwart critics, “spray foam on the runway”; meaning, you take steps to limit collateral damage from crashes.

Would Obama be willing to use our military to cover for Goldman Sachs’ incompetence and corruption?

The answer may be hidden within another question, would Obama be willing to use the military to cover for his own incompetence and corruption?

Obama-come-lately?

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Anyone on Twitter? Just as the new social media and technology came to the aid of the Iranians, it’s time to monitor the Honduran Twitterers. Per a Canadian Free Press report by Judi McLeod that they are receiving threatening text messages on their cells, warning them not leave their homes tomorrow night… and trying to get this message out to the world via their Twitter accounts.

“Now more than ever I will be the first one out the door,” Honduran Pedro Martinez told Canada Free Press tonight. Pedro Martinez is the pseudonym we gave to the young Honduran professional that Canada Free Press (CFP) walked through Twitter hookup last week.

“Tomorrow might be a bad day,” Pedro tipped off CFP on twitter. “People are infiltrating Honduras thru (sic) Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua with the intention to create chaos.”

It was only yesterday that ousted Chavez bud, and treasonous ex-President of Honduras threatened bloodshed to regain power, while speaking from neighboring Nicaragua.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya gave his rival, Roberto Micheletti, one week to step down, saying he was prepared to risk bloodshed to recapture the presidency, which he lost on June 28.

~~~

Zelaya and Micheletti’s negotiating teams are expected to resume talks in Costa Rica on Saturday. But if those talks do not produce results, Zelaya said he would pay ”any cost” to reclaim the presidency.

“Let me come back – me with the people and you with your bayonets,” he said. “And instead of shooting innocent kids, shoot me.”

As Alec Rawls noted in an FA Reader Post on July 5th, Chavez has been strutting his stuff, making noises about invasion. If Zelaya is looking for a partner in bloodshed, he has no farther to look than the man who helped him print up the illegal ballots for an illegal referendum, and the Chavez minions who were among Zelaya’s back up when he stormed a Honduras Air Force base to recollect those confiscated ballots. It was then Zelaya was escorted out of the country.

Chavez has been laying some pretty convincing groundwork for an invasion… labeling the Honduras situation as “explosive” on Sunday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the political situation in Honduras is “explosive,” and some members of the Central American country’s military may take action to restore deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

~~~

“The situation is an explosive situation,” Chavez said today during his Sunday television program “Alo, Presidente.” “Don’t be surprised if a patriotic current comes out” of the military, he said.

Chavez said U.S. President Barack Obama should take control of the “Yankee empire,” which he said includes the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. The socialist Venezuelan leader said the “empire” was behind Zelaya’s overthrow on June 28 because Honduras was strengthening ties with Chavez.

“The new specter that the bourgeoisie and the Yankee empire have invoked throughout the continent isn’t socialism and isn’t communism, it’s Chavismo,” he said, referring to a label used to describe Chavez’s ideology.

Apparently it doesn’t matter to the lefist one that Obama has not only sided with Chavez, but actually meddled in Honduras’ affairs prior to Zelaya’s ouster. Even the Eunuch in Chief can serve as a convenient “Great Satan” patsy.

Within 24 hours of Chavez’s thinly veiled threats, he was demanding Obama remove “gringo” US troops from the Honduran US airbase.

“If the U.S. really was against the coup it would have already withdrawn its troops from the Palmerola military base,” Chavez said in his Sunday TV program, Hello President.

The U.S., which has repeatedly condemned the coup, has some 350 soldiers deployed at an airbase in Honduras.

“Obama, pull your gringo soldiers out of Honduras, deprive the rebels of aid, freeze their accounts, stop giving them visas, and you will see how their rule ends,” Chavez went on.

In response to the increased chatter of threats, a curfew has been reimposed in Honduras from midnight to 5AM.

But the Hondurans aren’t easily intimidated.

Zelaya’s ultimatum to the interim government ordering it to relinquish power within the week and the demands for his immediate restitution has only raised the peoples’ dander.

People like Pedro expect only the worst from Zelaya.

This is a sturdy resistance that predates the July 28 bum’s rush, and one that sees Zelaya as a dictator who is giving their country and all it stands for over to “socialist rule under Chavez.”

“Long before the so-called coup d’etat, we watched as Chavez’s shiny new tractors were given like carnival candy to Honduran farmers,” Pedro told CFP in an earlier telephone call. “The tactics are the same ones used by Communists everywhere.”

“While his own people, whose children go hungry were out of work, Zelaya was swaggering under his 10-gallon cowboy hats and 100% tooled leather cowboy boots.

“We were told that big-spending Zelaya had been whooping it up in Costa Rica, where he blew his way through $80,000 in his first few days in exile.

“I was there at Tegucigalpa airport on July 6 when our interim government refused to let his plane touch down from Costa Rica. Zelaya and supporters, whose bullets killed my two countrymen, lied when they said the bullets came from the Interim Government side. Our side used rubber bullets. Zalaya supporters used real bullets on real people.”

Pedro, who speaks perfect English, says Zalaya “thugs” and “militants” have been threatening Honduran journalists. “We know what supermarket your wife uses. We know which school your little boy attends. That’s what they have been telling journalists,” Pedro says.

~~~

Meanwhile, Pedro and his many countrymen are in defending Honduras mode: “God bless Honduras. God bless Canada and the Free World. Nobody is going to take our Freedom and Democracy away. Nobody.”

Sounds like some old fashioned American spirit is alive and well… even if not in our borders.

I wish the Hondurans well… and very much hope a naive POTUS with misplaced loyalties does not hamstring our troops to aid in their defense.

Never a word from the Obama regime about Venezuela’s threat to invade Honduras and restore Chavez crony and fellow usurper Zelaya to power, but there is no lack of volume in Obama’s actions. Instead of facing Venezuela with a palm turned “stop,” Obama is pointedly walking away. AP headline: “U.S. halts military operations with Honduras to protest coup.”

This is not just some planned military exercise that has been canceled. Honduras is a close military ally and a base of operations for the United States in Central America. We will continue to use our bases, but as of now, the Hondurans are on their own.

Obama knows better than anyone that the arrest of Zelaya was completely legal and was not a coup

When AP calls the military arrest of Zelaya a “coup,” they are just following Obama, but the Obama regime was fully informed all along of the details of Zelaya’s attempted usurpation and fought vigorously to forestall his arrest:

The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said the U.S. Embassy in Honduras was “consistently and almost constantly engaged in the last several weeks working with partners” and that U.S. officials were “in contact with all Honduran institutions, including the military.”

What were the Hondurans telling Obama? That the Honduran constitution REQUIRED the arrest of a president who tries to engineer a second term, and that it specifically empowers the Honduran Supreme Court to issue to the Honduran military an arrest warrant in such a case. Honduran Supreme Court justice Rosalinda Cruz describes how Zelaya had already started illegally shutting down checks and balances and how his arrest was immediately necessary to stop him from usurping the Honduran democracy:

“The only thing the armed forces did was carry out an arrest order,” said [Honduran Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz] in a telephone interview from the capital, Tegucigalpa. “There’s no doubt he was preparing his own coup by conspiring to shut down the congress and courts.”

Cruz said the court issued a sealed arrest order for Zelaya on June 26, charging him with treason and abuse of power, among other offenses. Zelaya had repeatedly breached the constitution by pushing ahead with a vote about rewriting the nation’s charter that the court ruled illegal, and which opponents contend would have paved the way for a prohibited second term.

She compared Zelaya’s tactics, including his dismissal of the armed forces chief for obeying a court order to impound ballots to be used in the vote, with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“Some say it was not Zelaya but Chavez governing,” she said.

Having been “consistently and almost constantly engaged” for weeks “with all Honduran institutions,” the Obamaistas knew that Zelaya was trying to end the rule of law, yet they fought furiously against his removal, and when he was removed, dishonestly called Zelaya’s arrest “not legal“; declared Zelaya to still be the legal president of Honduras; and insisted on his immediate return to power.

OAS extended membership to communist Cuba last month

To ratchet up the pressure on Honduras, Obama is joining the call for Honduras to be ousted from the Organization of American States if it does not knuckle under to Zelaya. Exactly one month ago, the OAS voted to grant membership to the communist dictatorship in Cuba. Usurpers in. Rule of law out.

Check out AP’s picture of Hillary and Zelaya laughing over Cuba’s rehabilitation:

Actually, those should be thought balloons. Here is Zelaya’s actual commentary:

“The Cold War has ended this day in San Pedro Sula,” said Honduran President Manuel Zelaya immediately following the announcement.

Yes, we are all communists now.

UPDATE

Hugo Chávez said that he supports the return of deposed President Zelaya to Honduras by means of “a set of actions,” including contacts with military officers. Zelaya could return home “by land, air or water,” said Chávez in an address on Thursday in a state-run TV station, AFP reported.

“We are supporting his return to Honduras and we are planning several actions. (We are) contacting social leaders that are heading the resistance movements. We have contacted military leaders who disagree with what is happening in their country,” Chávez said.

If Chavez succeeds in creating violent chaos and undermining the Honduran congress and supreme court, expect Obama to continue to support Zelaya’s return to the presidency, regardless of popular opposition. Restoration of Zelaya is already Obama’s declared objective, and as with Chavez’ initial threat of to invade, Obama is saying nothing to counter this latest Chavez threat.

That’s the amazing thing. Longshot as it would be for Chavez to pull off a coup in another country, he is openly talking about it, and the United States is saying nothing in response. After Chavez’ initial threat to invade, Obama terminated cooperation with the Honduran military, so we have already left the way free for Chavez to find a violent path to power for Zelaya.

New heights in chutzpah from the Oval Office… Hot BBC article with a video of the big Zero labeling the Honduras removal of a President, ignoring rule of law, as “illegal”. Let me get this straight… Iran’s stolen elections are legitimized by the Ayatollah’s certification, flying serious excrement in the face of reality; and the legal removal of a law-breaking SOB as Honduras President (and replacement of their next in command) per their law is not?

Note: No embed code provided…

Per their accompanying article:

US President Barack Obama has described the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as illegal.

His remarks came after left-wing Latin American leaders declared their support for the deposed leader, who was expelled by the military on Sunday.

~~~

Our correspondent says that even though the international community regards the exiled leader as the legitimate leader of the country, any comeback will not be easy.

Speaking after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Mr Obama said Mr Zelaya remained the democratically-elected leader of Honduras.

And he said a “terrible precedent” would be set if the coup were not reversed.

Earlier on Monday, speaking in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spelled out his opposition to the situation in Honduras.

“We cannot allow a return to the past. We will not permit it,” Mr Chavez said.

He spoke after talks with Mr Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Sorry… but what was that about meddling again?

What a difference a day makes. “Meddling” by the Obama admin is now in vogue when it supports extreme leftist leaders, as I posted on Sunday. But the Obama admin is not confining themselves merely to “words”, but is evidently working behind the scenes to get ousted President, Manuel Zelaya, reinstated.

Honduras’ newly appointed leader vowed Monday to resist pressure from across the Americas to reinstate the president ousted in a military coup, as protesters burned tires outside the occupied presidential palace.

Leaders from Hugo Chavez to Barack Obama called for the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya, who was arrested in his pajamas Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and flew him into exile. Eight leftist countries pulled their ambassadors from Honduras.

Roberto Micheletti, appointed president by Congress, insisted that Zelaya was legally removed by the courts and Congress for violating Honduras’ constitution — allegedly to extend his rule.

~~~

Micheletti said he was sure that “80 to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened.”

True or false, the rest of the world certainly was not, and the president of the U.N. General Assembly invited Zelaya to address the world gathering.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was working for “full restoration of democratic order in Honduras.”

U.S. diplomats said they are trying to ensure Zelaya’s safety and get him restored as president. Clinton signalled, however, the U.S. wasn’t siding fully with Zelaya, who had rejected several Supreme Court decisions before being overthrown.

“There are certain concerns about orders by independent judicial officials that should be followed,” Clinton said. “But the extraordinary step taken of arresting and expelling the president is our first and foremost concern right now.”

She indicated the State Department has not formally declared Zelaya’s ouster to be a coup because U.S. laws would then require cutting aid to the impoverished country.

“We’re considering the implications of it,” she said.

Removal from office for usurping rule of law in Honduras is an “extraordinary step”?? What I find “extraordinary” is the two-faced US President’s foreign policy, as well as his friends in the international community. Also calling for reinstatement is the Organization of American States. And then, of course, there’s the UN… with Ban Ki-moon parroting the usual “condemns” comment.

UPDATE: Were the post-arrest meddling not enough, Sweetness & Light latched on to more than interesting revelations in a WSJ article today, that documents senior Obama officials admitted they worked feverishly to prevent the law-breaking President’s arrest.

The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any moves to overthrow President Zelaya, said senior U.S. officials. Washington’s ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, sought to facilitate a dialogue between the president’s office, the Honduran parliament and the military.

The efforts accelerated over the weekend, as Washington grew increasingly alarmed. “The players decided, in the end, not to listen to our message,” said one U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. On Sunday, the U.S. embassy here tried repeatedly to contact the Honduran military directly, but was rebuffed. Washington called the removal of President Zelaya a coup and said it wouldn’t recognize any other leader.

The U.S. stand was unpopular with Honduran deputies. One congressman, Toribio Aguilera, got prolonged applause from his colleagues when he urged the U.S. ambassador to reconsider. Mr. Aguilera said the U.S. didn’t understand the danger that Mr. Zelaya and his friendships with Mr. Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro posed.

Well… just a slight correction to Mr. Aguilera’s comment: I’d say that many of us understand the dangers posed by such friendships and alliances with the Chavez’s and Castro’s of the world. It’s the leftist patsy occupying the Oval Office that simply doesn’t “get it”, were I to give him the benefit of the doubt of wanting what is best for America as we have known it to be since it’s inception. Perhaps, a more accurate assessment is that Obama *does* get it, and openly lends his support to such leadership and dangerous allies because of his “empathies” that lie strongly with similiar governing ideology. Perhaps, with his popularity with citizenry that seem unconcerned with the US’s march towards the far left, he feels this is his personal mandate in “remaking America”.

END UPDATE

I would so look forward to a viable explanation of why it’s okay to meddle with a nation who removes their President via every legal channel, but it’s not okay to meddle with a despotic regime in Iran flagrantly ignoring fair elections and committing human rights abuses on their population. But I won’t be holding my breath for the big Zero – and his fellow “citizens of the world” – to reconcile their actions…

Then again, how long before the current WH occupant finds himself subject to the same in the US, should his present path to spit on US Constitutional law continue? Eventually someone’s going to have the impetus to haul this arrogant “follower of the free world” before the SCOTUS.

The Honduran Army has ousted and arrested Chavez pal, and Obama supporter, President Manuel Zelaya. According to the Reuter’s report:

The Honduran army ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America’s first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to seek another term in office.

~~~
Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chavez — who has long championed the left in Latin America — said he would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally.

A military plane flew Zelaya to Costa Rica and CNN’s Spanish-language channel said he had asked for asylum there.

After Zelaya “upset” the Army? Tsk tsk, Reuters…. it is much more than that, as you shall see.

But the Reuter’s “journalist” (ha… a bit of humor there) is not alone in misinforming the world on Zelaya’s story, and masking the truth. Also racing to defend Zelaya is the American POTUS… apparently now unafraid to “meddle” in foreign affairs while parroting the same meaningless words ” deeply concerned”:

“I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya. As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference,” President Obama said in a brief statement on Sunday morning.

Interesting that the big Zero and (when it comes to Iranian human abuse and election fraud) Eunuch in Chief now solemnly evokes what he casts aside as unimportant INRE Iran… the promotion of democracy and the rule of law.

INRE Obama’s sudden fascination with promoting democracy, he uses a charter, the Inter-American Democratic Charter that plainly states it exists to encourage the spread of democracy in the Americas’ hemisphere. Apparently, this WH occupant needs a formal document to stand up for human rights and freedom in the world.

But that bit about “rule of law” has got to be an idiot test. If “rule of law” is behind Obama’s newly discovered balls to meddle with such strong statements (or so the media and lib/progressives insist they are) like “deeply concerned”, one may consider that it was Zelaya, himself, who was ignoring the Honduras “rule of law”. It was his insistence to hold a referendum vote to change the nation’s Constitution that the Honduras Congress, the electoral tribunal, and their Supreme Court stated was illegal.

After Congress declared the Sunday referendum illegal, Zelaya found himself in a standoff with the country’s main institutions. Honduras’ Supreme Court and electoral tribunal also declared the referendum illegal and, when the armed forces refused to distribute the ballots, Zelaya ousted armed forces chief General Romeo Vásquez. Top army officials and the defense minister resigned in protest. The court ordered Vásquez reinstated, Zelaya refused, and the attorney general said Congress should force the president to step down, questioning his mental stability. The Catholic Church in Honduras joined in voicing opposition to the referendum.

While the afore linked article on the Council of the America’s site suggests that what would be amended in the Honduras Constitution was not clear, the results of a successful amendment were blatantly clear.. the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other Latin American presidents, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe by extending or removing Presidential term limits.

Quite frankly, the man deserved to be ousted. But very revealing is Obama’s quick support, along with the EU, for Zelaya… an unpopular Marxist/leftist leader with even less popularity in his nation that Bush had in the US at his lowest point.

It might be poignant to note that this same treaty was evoked for the first time in April of 2002, when a coup temporarily removed Chavez for about 47 hours. The EU and Mexico’s Vicente cried “foul”, citing the charter, while the Bush admin threw it’s support to the new government. Chavez and the British newspaper, The Observer (via a Guardian report) accused Bush officials (including Elliot Abrams, Otto Reicht, Ollie North and John Negroponte) of aiding in the orchestrating of the coup d’etat. The coup was reversed before a General Assembly of charter members could be formed.

Looking retrospect… leaving that despot in power was a lost opportunity. Circumstances of that rebellion are completely different that Zelaya’s. In today’s case of Honduras, the exiled President is clearly governing against Honduras law. His ouster should stand.