Zelaya says he's being tortured by Israeli mercenaries

Thu, 09/24/2009 - 6:29pm

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tells the Miami Herald that he's being tortured and fears for his life:

He's sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries'' are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.

"We are being threatened with death,'' he said in an interview with The Miami Herald, adding that mercenaries were likely to storm the embassy where he has been holed up since Monday and assassinate him.

"I prefer to march on my feet than to live on my knees before a military dictatorship,'' Zelaya said in a series of back-to-back interviews.

Zelaya was deposed at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country on Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to speak before the United Nations. He sought refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state.

Witnesses said that for a short time Tuesday morning, soldiers used a device that looked like a large satellite dish to emit a loud shrill noise.

It's not quite clear from the article how Zelaya knows about the mysterious Israelis. Israeli government sources have denied involvement. 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez referred to Israeli complicity in the Honduran coup during his address to the General Assembly during the general assembly. At the press conference following the speech, a Herald reporter asked him if he could corroborate Zelaya's story. Chavez said he had no proof but had "no reason to doubt a serious man like Zelaya." 

Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register


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Credible

by arvay on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 4:59am

The little Prussia on the Jordan was intimately involved in the Georgian fiasco. I wouldn't put anything past this little nest of violent opportunists.

The beginning of vindication?

by tortmaster on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 9:27am

What a nutbar. The Hondurans might not have finished up their effort to get rid of him in the smartest manner, but it is becoming increasingly obvious what inspired it.

Miami Herald Quote

by ryanvaquero on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 6:19pm

FYI, the quote from the Miami Herald has created a controversy around the author of the article, Frances Robles.

It began when a reader noticed that Ms Robles seemed to have the most outrageous claim: "Israeli mercenaries are torturing me with radiation!"

And that led to a request for the full quote that Ms Robles got from President Zelaya. Ms Robles wrote back several long, rambling e-mails about herself, her career, links to other blogs -- and then insisted that she didn't "have the time" to produce the full quote. This happened in several e-mails.

And while she didn't "have the time" to produce the full quote, she DID have the time to get in touch with Zelaya's team, asking them to confirm the sensational quote she had gone to press with. But, they wouldn't confirm it -- because that isn't what President Zelaya told her. Unfortunately for Ms Robles, the fact that she was desperate to get them to confirm that President Zelaya said something that he didn't was leaked because the reader who inquired about the quote had contacts to journalists in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Oops.

Narco News has obtained the e-mails between the reader and Ms Robles, in which she has time to discuss everything except for the actual quote from President Zelaya. Narco News has also obtained the e-mails from Ms Robles to the Zelaya team, after she had been asked to produce the full quote, asking them for a quote.

You can read all about it here - http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3501/against-anti-semitism-right-left-or-media-induced

Now that the ADL and right-wing blogs everywhere have used Ms. Robles' undisclosed (and, apparently, non-existent) quote, will the Miami Herald issue a retraction? Will they print President Zelaya's statement on this matter, found in English here:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue60/article3855.html

Who knows? Certainly, a responsible newspaper would do so and then they would take further action to make sure that their reporters get a quote and get it right BEFORE sending it to press.