"This is not a man who follows the rule of law”

Bob Amsterdam appeared on KPCC, Los Angeles (Public Radio) today on the Larry Mantle show. (And you have to applaud Larry Mantle. He’s one of the few talk show hosts in the country not draining his listeners with endless droning on about Michael Jackson.) Mantle talked to Amsterdam about a front page issue that actually has some importance outside of the world of entertainment. Amsterdam, who represents a political prisoner in Venezuela-- a business guy named Eligio Cedeno who opposed Chavez’ tyranny and got thrown in the slammer as a result-- knows a little something about the dictatorial regime of Hugo Chavez and his juggernaut of destroying whatever vestiges of democracy remain in his country.

Today, Bob made the connection between Chavez and the Honduran military coup last night (when they led President Zelaya away in his pj’s with Zelaya insisting, “I’m the president of Honduras.” It seems President Zelaya, who started off as a nice right wing fellow, got to be good friends with Hugo Chavez recently, and lo and behold, if he didn’t become a radical leftist as a result. In fact, in his quest to dispense with niceties like the constitution, which term limits Honduran presidents, Mr. Zelaya turned to Mr. Chavez to print the ballots for his referendum in Caracas. Maybe Mr. Z thought ballots printed by his buddy might slip more easily into Honduran ballot boxes sans hanging chads if they were greased with a little Venezuelan oil. Zelaya, said Amsterdam, in demanding an office for life, was doing the bidding of Chavez who’s been trying to recruit him, along with as many Latino leaders as he can get, to be part of his anti-American League of Nations. Now, as you can imagine, President Chavez is unhappy that his new recruit got led off in his jammies, and he’s threatening to bring in troops to rectify the situation.

President Obama’s not happy either. We have not witnessed a military coup south of the border in about 16 years. Thought we were done with those messy things. So 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue issued a statement today expressing displeasure with this middle of the night business. After all, Mr. Zelaya was democratically elected. True, it’s just that once the people of Honduras put him in office, just like his pal Hugo, Zelaya decided that he could rip up the bothersome Honduran constitution and stay in his cozy office until they carried him out feet first. Instead, he got marched out on his own two feet and got a free flight to Costa Rica. (Hopefully they gave him a bathrobe and some slippers for the flight.) Bob Amsterdam agrees with President Obama “that the coup was unacceptable, but we have to put it in a wider context. While Zelaya was staging his constitutional coup, the military engaged in a counter coup to take him out, because Zelaya had defied not only the constitution but also the supreme court and the congress, and, working with Chavez decided to stage this vote…Let’s be clear, Zelaya was following the policy used by Chavez called ‘constitutional editing.’ This is not a man who follows the rule of law.”
Stay tuned.

Bob Amsterdam on Lionel today

With all due respect to Michael Jackson, whose music I love and have listened to for decades, there are other stories that are as, if not more, important to pay attention to which involve the future of the United States and our national security. Bob Amsterdam was interviewed on the Lionel Show on Air America this morning discussing the international release of his white paper yesterday which details the disintegration of the legal system in Venezuela and the systematic destruction of the rights of individuals by Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela supplies 20% of the US oil supply, thus it is strategically important to US interests, but Venezuela has been purchasing billions of dollars in weapons from Russia, more than any other country in the world. Why is Chavez, an avowed hater of America, arming? “It should make us concerned,” says Amsterdam, who calls Chavez "a Machiavellian dictator who is seizing assets and companies, and working extremely hard to develop a series of relationships that will impinge negatively on the United States.” As worrisome, says Amsterdam is the growing anti-Semitism in Caracas where there are public attacks on Jews. Also,the government is “hacking and tapping,” into personal internet sites and phone lines. Private phone conversations have literally been played on television shows. Add to this the fact that businessmen are thrown in jail for no other reason than supporting the opposition combined with the strong endorsement by Chavez of the “election” of Ahmadinejad in Iran and their mutual hatred for the United States and the picture that emerges is troublesome.

You can listen to Bob's interview with Lionel here, and check out his white paper here.

Bob Amsterdam with Montel Williams

International human rights attorney Bob Amsterdam was interviewed on the Montel Williams Show on Air America Radio Network this morning, discussing today’s release of his white paper on the undoing of Venezuela’s legal system. Bob not only strongly linked the dictators of Iran and Venezuela, but actually painted Venezuela as a more direct security threat to our country than Iran. Chavez is the single largest purchaser of arms from Russia, he said, to the tune of $5 billion. Chavez is also shutting down the last vestiges of a free press, supporting a home grown military organization--his own quasi-state army answerable only to him (very similar to the Basij), while systematically destroying the constitutional rule of law and locking up political prisoners with no hope of release. One of those prisoners is Eligio Cedeno, a millionaire businessman, in jail for no apparent reason other than his opposition to Chavez. And although, demonstrators are not being gunned down in the streets of Venezuela as they are in Tehran, he referred to Caracas as “a shooting gallery” where 14,000 murders take place every year.

Bob spoke of Chavez and Ahmedinejad as partners in crime, walking “arm-in-arm” in their hatred for the United States. Both are great polarizers, view the US as the Great Satan and have established regular unmonitored flights between Tehran and Caracas. Part of Iran’s purpose in establishing tight links with the Chavez regime, as well as the countries of Bolivia and Paraguay, he said, is to get around American sanctions by increasing economic cooperation with South America, signing contracts for oil, gas and commercial ventures. However, while the two dictators had found it convenient to designate George W. Bush as an enemy, President Barack Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has “unsettled the foundation of their narrative internally and their relationship to civil society.” It’s harder, he said, to paint Obama as the devil when his middle name is Hussein. Bob also believes the Iranian regime has been severely de-legitimized.

Last night I had dinner with Sam and Jan Donaldson, Jim Kimsey, Bill and Chuck and Lynda Robb, William Coleman and Marie Ridder who were discussing the situation in Iran. The general consensus was that the mullahs will prevail, the crackdowns will be similar to Tiananmen Square and Ahmadinejad will remain as president. Others felt, however, that what’s happening in Tehran is unstoppable and that noone can really predict what will happen in the long run, except that if change comes, women will have been largely responsible.

Demagogue

I just went to hear Michael Signer, author of "Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies." Signer (who ran for Lt. Governor of Virgnina) gave an historical perspective on democracy and tyranny and although he is claims to be optimistic about the state of democracy in the United States-- citing how Americans have spoken out forcefully about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay and Iraq-- he also described how the conditions are becoming ripe in this country for tyranny.

Talking about the views of Greek philosophers he spoke of how many of them thought people were best governed by the elite, or an oligarchy, but Aristotle's prescription for democracy was based on a civically rich people and a strong, well educated middle class. He also spoke of when the Wiemar Republic, a democracy, was struck by depression that it was ripe for the takeover by a strongman who could combat the economic turmoil, thus the Nazis came to power.

The United States is witnessing the rapid disintegration of the middle class and the destruction of wealth at such a rapid rate, that it would seem that, if conditions continue to deteriorate, it wont be long before Americans are asking for a demagogue to save them. What is a demagogue? Someone who identifies as a member of the common people, who triggers emotional reactions from the masses and uses them to political advantage and who tends to break the established rules of government. Unfortunately even beneficial demagogues tend to violent overthrow of the constitution "for the people's good."

The Stroud Communications Blog is Alive!

We wanted to kick off our new blog with one of our amazingly relevant and knowledgeable guests: International human rights attorney Bob Amsterdam. Bob, who represented Yukos oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsy, spoke to Martha Zoller this morning about the counter-intuitive and ultimately correct nature of President Obama's stance on the current turmoil in Iran.

Prior to his interview, Bob had been in Brazil talking to the former president of Brazil, discussing the human rights problems taking place in Venezuela and trying to raise awareness about the human rights disaster in Venezuela among Venezuela ’s key allies. He held a meeting with the President of the Brazilian Senate Jose Sarney to ask that Venezuela ’s entry into Mercosur be conditioned upon human rights.

Bob is releasing a white paper on Wednesday (the 24th). It not only takes on the state’s fraudulent case against a political prisoner named Eligio Cedeño but also exposes exactly how the Chavez government has converted the justice system into a political weapon. All the while Chavez is making deals right, left and center with Iran, Russia and China, including buying $5 billion in arms from Russia. The case of the political prisoner in Venezuela that Bob represents, Mr.Cedeño, is much bigger than any one single personal vendetta. His plight is symbolic of some 50 political prisoners, whose swelling ranks have been successfully hidden by Venezuela . This worsening situation is on the verge of boiling over into serious political problems for the president, especially in combination with the severe economic contraction the country is experiencing as part of the global crisis.