Chavez accuses CIA as bombings rock Venezuela

[Say_What]

More US dirty trick attempts to destabilize the government of democratically elected Hugo Chavez--same thing happened with Allende in Chile.

<clips>

Tensions mounted in Venezuela Monday after bombings rocked the capital and an ally of Presi-dent Hugo Chavez accused the CIA of backing opponents trying to oust the beleaguered leader.

Two fuel tankers exploded late Sunday at the capital's municipal airport, 36 hours after the presidential guard barracks and the national telecommunications offices were bombed.

Lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said he would lobby US legislators to open any CIA files on Venezuela.

"Let them declassify the secret documents on CIA involvement and their financing of undercover activities during 2002-2003 because we have hard evidence that the terrorist attacks were planned," he said. He did not mention which US lawmakers would be asked to help.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/10/08/2003070877

[mw]

1. So....Bush is supporting terrorism in Venezuela

Arrest him, and send his ass off to Gitmo.

[Say_What]

2. More detail about the terrorist being trained in Florida

in this article posted in Editorials:

<clips>

..An article published in the Wall Street Journal in January detailed the activities in Florida of Capt. Luis Eduardo Garcia, one of the first Venezuelan officers to storm the presidential palace during the April 2002 coup. Heading up an outfit known as the Venezuelan Patriotic Junta, Garcia has forged a “civic-military” alliance with the F-4 Commandos, an anti-Castro exile group that has carried out terrorist attacks against Cuba.

According to the Journal: “Now Capt. Garcia says he is providing military training for some 50 members of the F-4 Commandos, 30 of them Cuban-Americans, the rest Venezuelans, in a shooting range close to the Everglades. ‘We are preparing for war,’ he says.”

Florida newspapers, including El Nuevo Herald carried similar reports on the terrorist training camp.

Chavez directly protested the existence of the camp in a meeting last month with Shapiro. In a speech also delivered in September, he denounced the hypocrisy of the Bush administration’s supposed war on terrorism. “There in the US they are conspiring against Venezuela,” he said. “Terrorists are training against Venezuela and it is a demand that must be made to the government of the US, because they are obligated by international law to act. If what they say is true, that they are fighting against terrorism, they should act against the terrorists on their own territory who are threatening Venezuela.”

Shapiro responded by claiming that the training of terrorists on US soil “is not necessarily a crime.” He asserted that the US government is in “the process of collecting information and we must follow all legal procedures.” The first reports of the military activities of Capt. Garcia appeared in the Miami press fully a year ago.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/vene-o08.shtml

[ignatius]

4. The School of the Americas is a terrorist training

camp right here is the USA. Odd how when we train them, it is a ok.

What is with the repugs that they continually cause turmoil and coups in democratically elected countries?

Are they so frightened by democracy that they have to continually destroy it? Are they afraid that all of the oil money in Venezuela might actually stay in Venezuela?

The CIA should be accountable to congress or at the minimum to the Security council. Someone should be held accountable for the worlwide chaos they create.

[Say_What]

8. Wall Street Journal article about the terroris camp in Florida--Not SOA

although some of those who participated in the failed coup in Venezuela last year were graduates of the SOA.

At the website of the F-4 Commandos where Garcia says he is providing military training for some 50 members of the F-4 Commandos, 30 of them Cuban-Americans, the rest Venezuelans, in a shooting range close to the Everglades.

<clips>

... Not long ago, the self-proclaimed leader of the F-4 Commandos, Comandante Rodolfo Frómeta, 56 years old, signed a "civic-military" allegiance with dissident Venezuelan Cap Luis Eduardo Garcia, leader of the Venezuelan Patriotic Junta. The two groups have vowed to join their combined military experience and exchange "intelligence and counterintelligence" to combat Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Mr. Chavez, whom the groups brand as "traitors to the Latin American fatherland."

"Our goal is to see Venezuela and Cuba be free," says Mr. Frómeta, a slight man who sports a black, Ho Chi Minh-style wispy beard and whose day Job consists of chauffeuring elderly patients to a medical clinic. "We want Venezuela to be free by peaceful means but in Cuba the only way is through an insurrection."

These days, it's deja vu all over again in Miami.

For years, as Cuban exiles conspired first with agent from the Central Intelligence Agency, and then without them to topple the Castro regime, Miami was America's Casablanca - a capital of hothouse exile politics, outlandish claims, fiery but mostly empty rhetoric, and spy-versus-spy hijinks.

http://www.comandosf4.org/newspaper/2003-01-29.htm

[9215]

14. "fatherland"?????

This WWII Nazi term was also used by drug dealers working with Oliver North during Iran-Contra. A chapter in author Gary Webb's book "Dark Alliance" which focuses on the cocaine--CIA connection has a chapter titled: "God, Fatherland, and Country"

[Say_What]

9. SOA renamed in 2001 and

is now called: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation Here's their website. http://www.benning.army.mil/whinsec/

Here's the website of the SOA: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/usarsa/main.htm

A clip about them from soawatch.org

On January 17, 2001 the SOA was replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC).
The result of a Department of Defense proposal included in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal 2001, the name-change measure passed when the House of Representatives defeated a bi-partisan amendment to close the SOA and conduct a congressional investigation by a narrow ten vote margin. (See Talking Points, Critique of New School, Vote Roll Call.)

In a media interview, Georgia Senator and SOA supporter, the late Paul Coverdell, characterized the DOD proposal as "cosmetic" changes that would ensure that the SOA could continue its mission and operation. Critics of the SOA concur. The new military training school is the continuation of the SOA under a new name. It is a new name, but the same shame.

http://www.soaw.org/new/

[tom_paine]

21. Yes, the Busheviks are frightened as hell of democracy

Which is why they work so hard to curb, curtail or crush it around the globe.

Under the guise of promoting democracy, of course.

And now, the Imperial Subjects of Amerika are regarded just about to the same depths as the Chileans or Guatemalans now by the Busheviks. In other words, the Busheviks are "going to help us select the right people for us" with no compunction or remorse, as they have practiced down in Latin Amerika for decades.

But now it's different. The Imperial Amerikan Fatherland is now no longer immune (if it ever was) from this "Latin Amerikan" treatemnt by the Busheviks (read Ed Luttwak's Coup manual printed for the CIA in 1968, it reads like a 2000 gameplan for a very good reason...it WAS the gameplan).

Hey, at least they still have some minor compunctions about unleashing Right-Wing Death-Squads here in Amerika to kill anyone with a voice and to the left of Albert Speer.

Though, to be quite honest, one has to wonder just how many more years THAT self-imposed restriction on Bushevik behavior will last.

Anyone care to speculate?

[bobthedrummer]

6. MIAMI STATION also hosted the flightschool where the 19 highjackers

trained, some of them rented apartment space with case officers IMO
http://www.madcowprod.com/

[9215]

11. Brilliant link bob

And brother Jebby oversees it all.

[cprise]

20. kick

...and bookmarked.

This is a great thread!

[Cat Atomic]

3. Thanks for the Venezuela pieces, Say_What

The situation in South America, especially Venezuela, is enormously important and scandalous, but it's being completely ignored.

[ze_dscherman]

5. Chavez has a chance

.... if the U.S. oil supply becomes endangered thru the crisis.

I'm pretty convinced that only the Iraq war has prevented Chavez from more intense attacks earlier this year, after the failed coup and the oil "strike".

[tlcandie]

7. I hope he survives and can overcome and stand up against the US terrorists

US TERRORISTS taken from the linked article!

<snip>
Shapiro responded by claiming that the training of terrorists on US soil “is not necessarily a crime.”
<snip>

:wow:

[goforit]

10. He means the Bush Junta......not the US CIA!!!!

Another Malicious desire to control the worlds OIL!!!!

[9215]

12. Here are some more links and background info

This link has a fantastic discussion of Cisneros+Bushie+Miami exile fascist connections:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=12944&forum=DCForumID61&omm=0

George Bush senior to spend luxury holiday with Gustavo Cisneros
more coup plotting against the democratically elected Chavez. Round three coming up, sad to say.
Check those Fanjul brothers, Alfi and Jose. Throw their names into Google for some more information about how foreign citizen control US politics.
<clips>
Former US President George P. Bush is heading to the Dominican Republic for a luxury holiday, where he will spend quality time with anti-government Venezuelan media tycoon Gustavo Cisneros, who President Hugo Chavez Frias accuses of leading a push for a coup d'etat to have him forcibly removed from office.
The Venezuelan leader has threatened to take action against many privately-owned media companies ... particularly the four privately-owned TV stations ... for broadcasting "seditious opposition propaganda" and a series of advertisements urging Venezuelans to support the work stoppage, which has had devastating effects on the country's economy.
Bush is set to arrive on the Caribbean island next Tuesday, where he will stay at the Casa de Campo resort owned by the Fanjul brothers, Alfi and Jose ... he will then join the Venezuelan media tycoon in several rounds of golf in the town of La Romana.
There are strong indications that Bush will also meet secretly with corruption-impeached former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez.
This will be Cisneros' second meeting with a former US President in less than a month, after holding talks with Jimmy Carter in Caracas several weeks ago. Carter returned to Venezuela to break the political deadlock following a direct invitation from Cisneros to do so.
<http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=2092>

[Say_What]

15. and this article: Is U.S. Policy Toward Venezuela Counter-Productive?

Which details what's been going on over the last several weeks.

<clips>

In recent weeks U.S. officials have made a series of remarkably unfriendly statements against the government of Venezuela, and its President Hugo Chavez. This breach of diplomatic norms can only serve to worsen relations between the two countries. It also provokes resentment in Latin America -- in the same way that the Bush administration's decision to disregard the United Nations and invade Iraq lowered our standing throughout the world.

"I think that some of the things that he has done at home politically and his policies on the economic side, has ruined what is a relatively wealthy country," said Roger Noriega, the State department's top diplomat for the Americas. This statement is ironic, since Venezuela's current recession is mainly a result of the 64-day oil strike organized in December and January by opposition leaders seeking to overthrow the government. The State Department did not criticize this strike nor ask its friends in the opposition to desist from it, even though the Bush administration was preparing for war in the Middle East and had a strong interest in maintaining the flow of oil from Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

U.S. officials have also made a number of statements indicating support for a referendum to recall President Chavez. This is in sharp contrast to the Bush administration's position on the California referendum. When Republicans were gathering signatures to recall Governor Gray Davis, the Bush team remained studiously neutral.

In addition, U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro violated diplomatic protocol by meeting with the country's newly appointed electoral commission last week, even before the commission had met with the government. He offered "assistance" with the commission's work, including their first task of deciding whether to accept the opposition's recall petition. The petition was subsequently rejected unanimously by the commission, with even the opposition members abstaining.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1021

[9215]

22. Now its time to clear the deck for action.

I know I'm not in the trenches like Venezuela is, but it is time to fight the BFEE. They latter will not let up until they have destroyed democracy in Venezuela, so Chavez may as well dig in and fight. It is now largely an info/PR war with Bush tied up in Iraq and losing popularity at home.

If at all possible Chavez should draw the UN Security Council into this situation and try to get peacekeepers in country. Meanwhile he should go after the fascist traitors and alien seditionists with the full force of the law, form military tribunals (I'm sure Bush could vouch for the neccessity of this, hee, hee) and issue harsh punishment. Clean as many of them out as he can before the BFEE Octopus gets into full gear.

Politicians and critics in the US should understand that Bush is forcing Venezuela to go off of the Dollar and onto the Euro with this terrorist activity. Bush's fascist foreign policy is the reason for the Dollar's demise.

[9215]

24. Hugo should label Ambassador Shapiro an alien seditionist and kick

the son-of-bitch out of the country. I don't know what the Venezuelan constitution reads on this, but Shapiro has no business being involved in the internal affairs of a nation and trying to overthrow a democratically elected leader.

Time to fight the motherfuckers. The BFEE is trying to take him down piecmeal with low intensity terrorist acts. Deport any son-of-bitch that is a threat and restrict those who are suspect, consolidate your base of support and nationalize, or shut down the seditionist news orgs until stability is returned. Form citizen militias of pro-democracy volunteers to be used as needed to police important areas, installations. etc.

Solicit the assistance of any foreign nation, the UN or whatever.

KICK ASS!!!


PS. Ask Fidel, he knows how to fight like this. }(

[loudnclear]

13. Unbridled terrorism by the US and Israel and the rest of the world won't

unite to stop it. Well, what the hell, 30 years from now most of us will be dead anyway. Let our children take care of themselves.

[Say_What]

16. Venezuela/Chile (Allende) CIA destabilization similarities

<clips>

...U.S. planning for the 1970 election began in June, 1970, when the Forty Committee met on Chile and Richard Helms promised John McCone $400,000 of CIA funds to assist the anti-Allende news media.54 The CIA also contributed $1 million to Allende's opponents.55 Allende's election went to the Chilean congress sitting as an electoral college, where an additional $350,000 was paid out by the CIA in an attempt to buy votes.56

After Allende's victory, Nixon, Kissinger, Helms, and John Mitchell met on September 15, 1970. Helms came from that meeting with the impression that "Nixon wanted a plan for action that would include a military coup and a broad-based destabilization effort that would 'make the economy scream.'" Helms' notes of the session read, "Not concerned with risks involved. Full time job -- best men we have."57 An additional $6 million was spent over the next three years,58 including $1.5 million to rightist candidates in the March, 1973 congressional election.59 The grand total of $8 to $11 million spend by the CIA since 1970 may have been worth $40 to $50 million after being funneled through the black market.60

On the day that Helms received his instructions from Nixon, the owner of El Mercurio, wealthy Chilean businessman Agustin Edwards, conferred with top officials of the Nixon administration.61 The El Mercurio network consists of newspapers, radio station, ad agencies, and a wire service; it dominates the Chilean media in audience, size, and prestige, and includes the three principal newspapers of Santiago and seven provincial papers.62 In the seven-month period from September 9, 1971 to April 11, 1972 the CIA spent $1.5 million on El Mercurio,63 but the funding also preceded and followed this period. El Mercurio may have been the recipient of almost half of the total CIA expenditures in Chile since 1970.64 In addition to the sort of ads that were used successfully in the 1964 campaign, CIA funding also sponsored mailings before the election of forged Popular Unity stationery to hundreds of thousands of voters. These mailings asked voters to list household goods and indicate whether they would be willing to share with the poor after the election.65 The CIA even purchased a radio station for the right-wing.66 The El Mercurio network was used by the CIA to "launder propaganda, disinformation, fake themes and scare stories which were then circulated through 70 percent of the Chilean press and 90 percent of the Chilean radio. The USIA and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) in turn circulated these stories all over the world."67 CIA agents at El Mercurio included Enno Hobbing, Alvaro Puga, and Juraj Domic.68

The CIA helped finance truckers' strikes in 1972 and June, 1973, probably through the International Transport Workers Federation,69 and may have had a hand in funding, training, and arming the Patria y Libertad, an extreme right-wing party in Chile.70 Michael Townley, a former Peace Corp volunteer in Chile recruited by the CIA, directed groups of Patria y Libertad to paint "Djakarta is approaching" slogans all over Santiago immediately before the coup.71 CIA money also subsidized a strike of middle-class shopkeepers and a taxi strike in the summer of 1973.72

http://www.lakota.clara.net/myths/usdstab.html

[Say_What]

17. NED funding of destabilzation

<clips>

....The Long Arm of the NED

The funding was sent by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nominally private institution created during the cold war, which receives nearly all of its annual budget from congressional appropriations. The NED's express mission is to "strengthen democracy throughout the world." However, many academics view the institution as a cold war mechanism for deploying U.S. "soft power" during the East-West standoff, and critics have frequently accused the NED of simply being a tool for supporting regimes friendly to the United States and opposing ones considered hostile. The NED funnels its money overseas either through direct grants to foreign organizations or through four NED core institutes: the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).

Between 2000 and 2001, as the political and social crisis here worsened, the NED more than tripled its Venezuela funding, from $257,831 to $877,435. The lion's share went to Chávez opponents.

A several-month examination of the use of more than a million dollars in 2000 and 2001 NED grants has revealed not only a consistent pattern of support for Chávez opponents--including two groups active in the protests that brought about his brief downfall this April--but also apparent deception concerning some of the money's use as well as the fact that other monies never reached their intended destination.

Follow the Money--If You Can

One of the organizations prominent in the anti-Chávez protests that received NED funding is the nation's primary union, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV). It was granted $154,377 in 2001, nearly triple the $60,084 it received in 2000.

http://www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2002/0212venezuela_body.html

---

Figures from NED's website for 2001.


http://www.ned.org/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll

[Judi Lynn]

18. Hard to hope this can be stopped when Bush & Co.

have been backing this overthrow from the first. Hard to believe we can count on hearing the truth when the Bush family friend controls HUGE media resources in Venezuela, an empire which reaches into the U.S. through Univision from coast to coast.

This story seems to have at least some of the info. intact:

(snip) Venezuela defense minister says "terrorists" caused weekend explosions

CARACAS (AFP) Oct 07, 2003
Venezuela's Defense Minister Jose Luis Prieto said "terrorists" caused two weekend explosions that targeted Caracas military installations amid a recent increase in such incidents.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for two separate explosions that targeted air force headquarters and a military base here. No one was injured in the blasts.

However, ruling party lawmaker Nicolas Maduro has said the attacks were instigated by opponents of President Hugo Chavez who he claimed have received funding in the past from the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The two Sunday blasts followed several September bomb and grenade attacks, one near the presidential palace, which Chavez officials attributed to opponents seeking to remove the leftist-populist Chavez in a recall vote. (snip/...)

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031007170544.jab48vl1.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can be sure you're getting a hefty dose of propaganda when any news stories starts making all the judgements for you, and condemning the government leaders, not allowing you to get the undiluted truth. Check this ending of a Reuters story:

(snip) Prieto linked Sunday's blasts to a series of mysterious bomb and grenade attacks in Venezuela this year, which Chavez's government routinely blames on hard-line political opponents without offering any evidence.

"The similarity of these terrorist acts ... indicates that those behind them have a strategy to destabilize the country," Prieto said.

The targets attacked have included diplomatic and military installations. Last month, an explosion damaged the barracks of Chavez's honor guard alongside the presidential palace.

Foes of former paratrooper Chavez, who portray him as a dictatorial ruler trying to install Cuban-style Communism, accuse the government of carrying out the attacks to try to discredit them.

The opposition is planning a nationwide collection of signatures later this month in a bid to trigger a national vote on the rule of the populist president, who was elected in 1998 six years after staging a failed coup. (snip/)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07201435.htm

[Judi Lynn]

19. Concerning Venezuelan media

(snip) The poor of Venezuela, the vast majority of the population, love Chavez because he is bringing them not only democracy, but also a chance to access the country's vast natural wealth. For example, as last Sunday's Star revealed, Chavez's land reform laws, which are redistributing 2 million hectares of idle, state-owned property to poor families, are upsetting the wealthy élite who, as in many Latin American states, have long exploited the campesinos. And so they are exercising their economic might to bring Chavez down.

Well, they don't say information is power for nothing. Venezuela's wealthy anti-Chavez class owns the five largest television stations and nine of the 10 major national newspapers. And time and time again in the last few years, particularly in April, 2002, when Chavez's opposition staged a coup against him and again last winter when there was a 64-day oil strike and business lockout, the private media have gone on the attack, in ways that make the U.S. feeding frenzy on the Bill Clinton thong-gate look like a Victorian ladies' tea.

Over and over, they have incited the overthrow of this democratically elected government and viciously manipulated images to make it look bad.

You think that the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad was used as propaganda? You should see how Venezuela's private networks made it look as if Chavez supporters were shooting unarmed government protestors. It's there in the stunning documentary Chavez: Inside The Coup, on CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye tonight at 10. The film has won all kinds of international awards, including the top prizes at this year's Banff and Monte Carlo TV festivals, plus scored a standing ovation at this month's Toronto film fest.

The thing about the Venezuelan media is, they often feed the international media. Never do they tell you that the infant mortality rate under Chavez has plummeted or that school enrolment has soared. It's all doom and gloom, linked to the "leftist" Chavez. Just last week for instance, Reuters relied on "local television'' images to report how Chavez forces were terrorizing oil company workers. But having seen Inside The Coup's dissection of the Venezuelan media, I had to discount the story. (snip/...)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1028

[Say_What]

25. Venezuela Pres: Govt Won't Heed Orders From The OAS

Chavez addressed this shortly after it happened and said it was similar to a tv or radio station in the US using illegal equipment and the FCC confiscating it, but they spin it a whole different way.

<clips>

CARACAS (AP)--President Hugo Chavez said he won't heed the Organization of American States' urging for media regulators to return equipment they confiscated from a private television channel last week.

"When an institution like this immediately begins to order a preventative measure, which we are not going to obey because it upholds crime, that institution loses all respect," Chavez told an international forum attended by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria and OAS delegates.

OAS officials haven't commented on his remarks.

Last week, authorities from the state telecommunications committee, Conatel, confiscated broadcasting equipment from the 24-hour TV news channel Globovision, which has been critical of Chavez's left-leaning government.

<http://news.nasdaq.com/news/newsStory.aspx?&cpath=20031008\ACQDJON200310082206DOWJONESDJONLINE001265.htm>

[Judi Lynn]

32. More on Venezuela's coup-promoting media

(snip) Venezuela: gov’t communications
building is target of grenade attack
Big-business media promotes actions against Chávez
(front page)

BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
CARACAS, Venezuela—Two individuals riding a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at the headquarters here of the state telecommunications agency, Conatel, around midnight on October 3. The glass entrance to the building was blown in; no injuries were reported. This was the second armed attack on government facilities in two weeks. A bomb blast on September 19 had damaged the barracks of the presidential Honor Guard located in front of Miraflores, the presidential palace.
“What happened is the result of the use of the media to incite violence,” said Venezuelan information minister Jesse Chacón about the attack on Conatel. He was referring to shrill calls by opposition politicians, publicized by the big-business media that day, for protests against the government of President Hugo Chávez in response to measures taken against one of the main opposition TV stations.

Earlier on October 3, Conatel technicians had seized seven transmission dishes and an antenna from the privately owned Globovisión TV station. The equipment was used by the station to broadcast live reports. The government said the measure was taken because Globovisión was broadcasting on a frequency it is not authorized to use and because it had repeatedly refused to comply with regulations.

Globovisión is one of four nationwide TV stations that the opposition coalition Coordinadora Democrática (Democratic Coordination) has been using to publicize its campaign against Chávez’s government. The opposition, led by the main employers’ association, Fedecámaras, has used these stations as part of several attempts to topple Chávez: promoting a short-lived military coup against Chávez in April 2002, a two-month bosses’ “strike” earlier this year to undermine the government, and more recently an effort to hold a referendum to recall the president. Each time, mass mobilizations by working people have pushed back the bosses’ efforts. (snip/...)

http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6736/673602.html

(Remember Globovision is owned by Gustavo Cisneros, personal friend of George H. W. Bush.)

[9215]

38. This is terrorism against a sovereign nation

being promoted by friends of Bush and presumably at his behest. What was it he said shortly after 9/11 about going after terrorists and "the countries that harbor them"? Let's apply that principle to Venezuela. Bush calls Saddam a threat to world peace, but here is a vivid example of how Bush, via proxy, is a threat to regional if not world peace.

[9215]

40. The links between Bush and terrorism

in Venezuela is much greater than the Saddam link to Al Qaeda and 9/11.

[Say_What]

41. Oh yeah, no question about that n/t

.

[JasonBerry]

23. Solidarity with Chavez and the PEOPLE !! N/T

~

[9215]

26. A kick for Chavez and Venezuela

Shit is getting rough down there.

[nn2004]

27. Is there any proof the US is involved in these bombings?

If there is could someone please post it? If I recall correctly people are innocent until proven guilty.

[Say_What]

28. Based on past performance around the globe,

I'd say the chances are very likely, but that's just my opinion.

<clips>

1 America's Allies
THE FRIENDLY DICTATORS
Meet the Friendly Dictators - three dozen* of America's most embarrassing "friends", a cunning crew of tyrants and corrupt puppet-presidents who have been rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to U.S. interests.

Traditional Dictators seize control through force and often are self-styled "Generals." Constitutional Dictators hold office through voting fraud or severely restricted elections and are frequently mouthpieces for the military juntas which control the ballot boxes. Both types of dictators are covered here, along with a few tyrannical kings. but don't look for "enemy dictators" (communists and the like) in this set of cards. These are America's allies, strange and undemocratic as they may be.

Friendly Dictators often rise to power through bloody CIA-backed coups and rule by terror and torture. Their troops may receive training or advice from the CIA and other U.S. agencies. "Anti-communism" is their common battle cry and a common excuse for political repression. They are linked internationally through extreme right-wing groups such as the World Anti-Communist League (see card 17). Strong Nazi affiliations are typical - some have been known to dress in Nazi paraphemalia and quote from Mein Kampf, while others offer sanctuary for actual Nazi war criminals.

Friendly Dictators usually grow rich, while their countries' economies go down the drain. U.S. tax dollars and U.S. backed loans have made billionaires of some; others are international drug dealers who also collect CIA paychecks. Rarely are they called to account for their crimes.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html

[nn2004]

30. I still don't see any proof of guilt on the part of the USA

Baseing guilt on past performance is not a reliable source.
We have a very good senator that is an ex-KKK member as a good example of past performance contradiction.

I think running off with a tome of guilt without evidence does a disservice to America.

[9215]

39. The only reason there is a double

standard on terrorism is because the BFEE, with the muscle of the US military and intelligence community at its disposal, has the power to squelch the voice and actions of those they terrorize. It is that simple and I think you know this.

Bush's standard for pursuing terrorism, a carte blanche decree to do whatever he wants militarily and use any excuse in the process, if applied by a Venezuela with the means to do so would result in a regime change in the US by the democratically elected Chavez.

They perversion of Lincoln's axiom: "Right makes Might" to "Might makes Right" is illustrated perfectly here.

[AP]

48. Technically, a court might consider evidence of a pattern...

...reliable evidence of what's going on presently.

[Judi Lynn]

31. I wonder why they ever called "covert ops" covert?

Surely they would conduct ALL right-wing interventions right out in the open, right?

(snip) Opposition legislators were also brought to Washington in recent months, including at least one delegation sponsored by the International Republican Institute, an integral part of the National Endowment for Democracy, long used by the CIA for covert operations abroad.

Overthrowing a man such as Hugo Chavez, guilty of such transgressions, was a duty so "natural" for the CIA that the only reason it might not have been intimately involved in the operation would be that the Agency had been secretly disbanded. (snip/)

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum0414.html

[9215]

34. "Innocent until proven guilty?" Ha, Ha, Ha.

Not any more. Tell that to Iraq.

Chavez has enough evidence, based on Dubya's standard, to try the whole cabal for international terrorism and send Cisneros, at least, to the gallows.

[Matilda]

35. Chavex is a socialist, that's enough.

The U.S., especially Republicans, does not like leaders of other countries who have crazy notions like helping the poor, and redistributing wealth downwards. They have a long history of interference with such regimes, and if Chavez believes the U.S. is backing the elite of Venezuela in the current troubles, that's good
enough for me. It's just history repeating itself.

[Classical_Liberal]

37. He is a Keynsianist actually

and being of the Roosevelt school of politics is a enough to warrent a coup attempt our politics has swung so far right.

[Judi Lynn]

44. Good point.

The people running the _Bush show would do TERRIBLE things to anyone having his kind of vision. God only knows what they would launch at someone like F.D.R.

[pescao]

45. hi judiLyn!

here's palast talking about why chávez is not a socialist (among other things) http://www.thenewagenda.org/venezuela (quicktime req.) it kinda goes with the other movie, below. lovely to hook up with u all again, pesc xx

[Judi Lynn]

46. Hi, Pescao

The April coup attempt seemed so immediate for Democratic Undergrounders due to YOUR phenomenal writing. It made this forum far larger than a "message board," you can be sure.

No doubt a ton of D.U.'ers have been following everything possible on Venezuela after getting a crash course on Venezuelan current events starting at that time.

Glad you and yours are safe now.

Doesn't look as if the trouble is over for Venezuela, yet, either. If our country finally gets a legitimate leader, no doubt things should be far more civilized between the two countries.

Thanks for the great information. I'm stashing it away to share with others. The gun/roses visual dissinformation is unforgivable, and a great example to wilfully ignorant Americans of just what the "news" media are up to in Venezuela.

Just finished hearing/watching the Greg Palast remarks. I'm glad to have heard that when Clinton was the U.S. elected President, because he respected Chavez, the tone of our media was entirely different, and he was perceived differently. The change to a right-wing extremist pResidency brought a whole different set of "values" which redefined him in our own media's allowed attitude toward him and his work. Not at all free and democratic.

Thanks for your valuable information injection!

[AP]

49. Pallast said Chavez would have fit right in with JFK's view of L.A...and

isn't it amazing that the US used to topple socialists like Allende, but, today, they find moderates so threatening to their plans for America that they need to subvert peoples like Clinton, Gore, Davis and Chavez.

[Matilda]

50. Tongue slightly in cheek.

He's nationalistic more than anything, but the fact that he will put Venezuela and its people before the concerns of corporations (read, oil companies in particular), is enough to damn him in the eyes of Corporate America, and we know they're the ones calling the shots in the U.S. today. Chavez believes in Venezuela for the Venezuelans, and that's not acceptable.

[JanMichael]

29. Kick

:kick:

[tom_paine]

33. Would the Busheviks killVenezuelans to forward their agenda?

Hell yes! They'd kill Imperial Subjects of Amerika, without a moment of hesitation.

Just ask Cliff Baxter or Marvin's maid (perhaps she was supplying him with his Oxy).

[pescao]

36. counter-revolutionaries making their big push

hi all! does anyone else think this is all tied in with the renewed media speculation that chávez is funding and harbouring al qaeda? lots of good info in this thread, glad to see the excellent venezuelanalysis getting a mention. did u see the photoshopping story they did? http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1025

...

On Friday September 26, the newspaper “Tal Cual” ("As such"), opponent of the Government, was sent to the streets with an issue that became the scandal of the week. On the cover of the paper, President Chávez is shown holding a 9mm caliber gun on the left hand. The publication of this high impact photo is the full responsibility of the Editor of the paper, who will have to appear before the Law for falsification of information.

The "little retouch" that was done to the original photo is not as simple as changing an image for another one. In this case, a gun was digitally put in place of a red rose that had been given to the President during the First Women World Forum underway in Caracas. Chavez gave a speech at the Forum in which 190 women from 27 countries participated in support of Venezuela’s revolutionary process.

...





also, this caught my eye a few days ago: http://www.petroleumworld.com/issues513.htm

Cisneros seeking the gold

Barrick Gold Corporation, a leading international gold company with operations in the United States, Peru, Tanzania, Chile, Argentina, Australia and Canada and gold mineral reserves of 86.9 million ounces, has appointed Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros to its board of directors.

...


for more on the lovely barrick, see greg palast's investigation into them, poppy bush and 50 tanzanian gold-miners buried alive: http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=207&row=1

hope ur all well, sorry not to be hanging out here very much recently, glad to see everyone is still as vigilant as ever! lots of love, pescao xx

[Say_What]

42. Great photo comparison and good to see you again, pescao

the dissemination of propaganda against Venezuela continues much as it has in the past with other leaders (read:allende) who would not kowtow to the US.

Are you south of the border or across the pond? Hope all is well with you and your family.

Peace!!

[pescao]

43. still in london

which is kinda ok, there's a latin america solidarity conference tomorrow here at the UCL, with seminars on venezuela, cuba, colombia, ecuador, chiapas, chili, nicaragua, argentina and the ftaa. but i never thought i'd still be here at 30 - i'm supposed to be growing hemp in the orinoco plains by now!

tiny movie i made of palast talking about the coup & countercoup: http://www.accessallareas.org/contents/active/features/gregpalast/gp_venez20030619.html (quicktime req.) peace, love & dancemusic, pesc xx

[AP]

47. cisneros & barrick. Don't these people (Bush family) have any shame?

And where's are the investigative journalism???

If I could control the US media for one week, I could change the world.

[Matilda]

51. That's just exactly what Rupert Murdoch thought

when he changed his nationality in order to buy up US media outlets.

[9215]

53. Poppy Bush link to Barrick Gold

Unable to accept U of T's official explanation for offering George Bush an honourary degree, some members of the university community can't help but link Bush to one of Canada's leading corporate giants and chief university fundraisers.

"Does the president really pretend this is a coincidence?," asked French professor Peter Fitting, about the upcoming announcement of a large donation from Peter Munk and Bush's November visit.

Munk is the chief executive officer of Barrick Gold, chair of the U of T Foundation and member of the executive committee of The Campaign.

"If they aren't prepared to give us some more criteria, given the two ones they've given are so laughable, we have no other choice but to think that the other reason has to be the corporatization of the university, a quid pro quo," said Fitting......more.....


http://varsity.utoronto.ca:16080/archives/118/oct14/news/bush.html

[9215]

52. US officials closely tied to Venezuelan coup.

A little history....

The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.
Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.
It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.
One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair. ......more.......

http://www.zmag.org/content/LatinAmerica/vulliamy_coup-venezuela.cfm

[9215]

54. Another article on this

http://www.americas.org/news/features/200205_venezuela_coup/20020501_us_role.htm