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US Launches Airstrike in Somalia
Let's see...what was it the ex-CIA head of the bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, told NPR last week? We'll go after terrorists wherever there's oil. (Particularly if someone else stands to get control of it.)
Go Joe.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Whatever It Is I'm Against It is my very favorite blog, and I generally agree with opinions and comments contained in the posts (and they're also very funny). Recently, there have been a couple of snarky posts about the failure to renew a TV license to an opposition station in Venezuela. On the surface, I might agree with the sentiment, but there are other circumstances that make this incident a not entirely clear-cut case of creeping dictatorship.
Following is an excerpt from an email I received today from a Venezuelan information organization. As background, I have personally seen pieces of a broadcast (now online here and here, about the film here) the day after the coup of 2002, from the TV station in question where the commenters were laughing and bragging about their role in staging the coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez. They freely admitted to participating in arranging the violent clash between anti- and pro-government crowds.
The first point made in the email is, in my mind, splitting hairs, or just changing spin. and I really don't know about the last one. But the other points are, I believe, well made and should be reported.
[Ed: the points made hereafter are not mine, but those from the email I received.]
1. There is no "Suppression of Media in Venezuela," nor was there a "closure" of RCTV. Instead its license to broadcast on the public airwaves was not renewed.2. The non-renewal of the license prevents RCTV from broadcasting on open access channels, but the station will still be allowed to broadcast in Venezuela through the internet as well as cable and satellite TV. Neither does it affect the possibility of RCTV producing material for domestic or international TV programming. Moreover, RCTV may continue to broadcast using their two radio stations.
3. The non-renewal is due to RCTV's failure to abide by legal norms established by the Venezuelan Constitution and the Law of Social Responsibility for Radio and Television. The law forbids public airwaves licensees from inciting political violence and civil unrest. RCTV's violations involve conspiracy to bring down the elected government of Venezuela during the violent coup of April 2002 as well as the active promotion of an economic sabotage later that year, which cost the country more than US$10 billion in losses. RCTV also has a long list of sanctions imposed by previous governments for reasons ranging from pornography, violations of laws prohibiting publicity of smoking and alcohol drinking to transmissions of false information.
4. The non-renewal of RCTV's broadcasting license is not an example of censorship, nor is it a strike against the private media in Venezuela. RCTV was part of a majority; 79 out of 81 TV stations and all 118 newspapers in the country are privately owned. Most are vehemently opposed to the democratically elected government of President Chavez. RCTV is unique only in its editorial excesses and its history of violating legal norms.
5. RCTV's large share of the open-access airwaves was assigned, upon expiration, to a public broadcaster that is dedicated to presenting programming that features independent operators and producers.
A federal judge on Friday ordered Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles freed from a New Mexico jail, ruling he can live under electronic surveillance with his family in Miami while awaiting trial May 11 on charges of lying to immigration authorities.
I don't know if that's so he can have a chance to escape or so he can be a target.
He's wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for terrorist activity. He worked for the CIA when George Bush Sr was Director. My guess is they'd like to keep him quiet.
You can click that picture for a bigger version, or you could go to Mr. Fish for the original. (I found Mr. Fish via W3IAI.)
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Weren't we supposed to build some more? In Texas?
President Bush authorized the construction of a border fence. [...] In October of last year, just before the midterm elections, the president signed the Secure Fence Act. It authorized the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling and prevent terrorists from sneaking into the country. The act also authorized additional checkpoints, lighting, and high-tech devices to monitor the border. But the problem is the word "authorized." "No money was attached to the bill," says Democratic congressman Silvestre Reyes of El Paso [...] "It was more of a political piece of legislation designed to appeal to conservatives before the election."[...]
While the Secure Fence Act did not provide any funding, Bush had already signed a spending bill that allocated $34.8 billion to homeland security. Of that, $1.2 billion was earmarked for a "security barrier," though that language is intentionally vague. [...] Initial estimates ranged from $2.2 billion to $9 billion. That difference seemed ridiculous enough until a government study came out in January that suggested the price could swell to more than $60 billion after figuring in costs such as purchasing the private property that lies in the path of the fence and solving environmental issues related to construction. And that's not even for the whole border.
What a surprise, eh? Like Bush's support of anti-gay marriage legislation.
And what do Texan politicians think of the deal?
Governor Rick Perry said, "Building a wall across the entire border is preposterous." Then he joked that a wall would only benefit "the ladder business." (That's a pale version of what Arizona governor Janet Napolitano said in December 2005: "Show me a fifty-foot wall, and I'll show you a fifty-one-foot ladder at the border.") Of course, Perry didn't think it was so preposterous to have cameras at the border hooked up to a public Web site so that average residents could report suspicious activity, but that's another story.
Yes, that is another story. Part of the story of how a bunch of people with European heritage manage to steal land and dignity from native residents time and again.
Where is the study that elucidates the differences in relations between the descendents of the European invaders of this part of the North American continent and Mexican-Americans, Native-Americans and Afro-Americans? There is some national tendency toward an apology for the treatment of Native Americans. At least there is some sense of national guilt about it. But the Euro-American attitude toward Mexican-Americans seems to be more like our attitude toward Afro-Americans. Why? Mexican-Amerians are natives to the southern US. They weren't imported for slavery like Africans. They were swallowed up. Much more like Native-Americans. Well, in fact, they are Native Americans.
But...back to that fence...
In September Boeing won a contract, estimated to be worth $2 billion, from the Department of Homeland Security to construct a "virtual fence." The project, known as the Secure Border Initiative, or SBInet, doesn't focus on permanent walls; it features a series of 1,800 towers similar to the ones you find in shopping-mall parking lots during the holidays. In addition to cameras, these towers will be equipped with high-tech heat sensors and motion detectors. Boeing will install the first group of towers along a 28-mile stretch of the border near Tucson, Arizona, and the company says it can have the entire program up and running in three years.
Estimated cost: $8 billion, possibly ballooning to $30 billion.
Sooooo much better a deal than the fency fence that never got funded anyway. I feel safer already. Oh, wait. I'm on an island in the Gulf. I want some floating patrol piers. With helipads.
We need a president who will actually do something here. Actually fund something. None of this pretty talk to sucker us into voting and then letting us hang out in the wind!
Seriously, this is a matter under the control of the Department of Homeland Security. Terrorists and illegal immigrants fall under the same agency. They're starting to all look alike to us pale-faces.
Raise the drawbridge!
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Pretty pathetic when it's the Right side of the aisle that is challenging this administration.U.S. Republican Senator Arlen Specter urged U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to put a stop on negative comments about Venezuela at a time in which the U.S. State Department is trying to resolve the recent controversy between the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Venezuelan anti-narcotics officials.[...]
Senator Specter, who is a member of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Congress, met this week with Venezuelan officials and President Chavez in Caracas to discuss his committee's oversight of US anti-drug trafficking and anti-terrorism policies.
[...]
"Our meeting produced an agreement between our Ambassador and Venezuela's Minister of the Interior, who had not previously had any contact, to meet early next week to try to resolve those differences between DEA and the Venezuelan narcotics officials," Specter said.
[...]
Senator Specter told Secretary Rumsfeld it may be helpful to, "at least, have a moratorium on adverse comments on Venezuela."
[...]
In a letter to Secretary Rumsfeld, Specter said "it may be very helpful to U.S. efforts to secure Venezuela's cooperation in our joint attack on drug interdiction if the rhetoric would be reduced."
"Unhelpful ways" that he didn't (or couldn't) name.ASUNCION, Paraguay, Aug. 16[...]
"Any time you see issues involving stability in a country, it is something that one wishes would be resolved in a democratic, peaceful way," Rumsfeld told reporters en route to Paraguay. "There certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways."
Ooops.U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld continued his brief swing through Latin America, meeting with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the country's new defense minister on Thursday. “Concerned about increasing involvement of Cuba and Venezuela in the region, the United States wants to ensure that Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez do not steer other Latin American countries away from democracy,” reports Liz Sidoti for AP. After meetings with top officials in Paraguay, unnamed U.S. defense officials said the country's leaders are very alert to the problems Cuba and Venezuela can cause. But Paraguay’s defense minister assured reporters that Paraguay’s relations with Cuba and Venezuela would not change, noting that Cuban doctors treat the rural poor in Paraguay and that 700 Paraguayans are studying medicine in Cuba for free.
El pueblo unido
Jamás será divido
I think Latin America is going to have to be "taught a lesson."
And we're just the guys to do it.
Rumsfeld accuses Cuba and Venezuela of involving themselves in Bolivian politics “in unhelpful ways,” without elucidating or offering any proof. They never do. He also insisted that South America’s problems “don’t lend themselves to single-nation solutions.” In other words those countries require somebody – but who, oh who? – to become involved in their politics in, you know, helpful ways.
The US defence secretary has accused Cuba and Venezuela of fomenting unrest in Bolivia, which has led to the overthrow of two presidents since 2003.
Speaking in Paraguay, a close US ally, he asked South American nations to take a multi-lateral approach to the issue.
But while Donald Rumsfeld has had a warm reception in Paraguay, he will have a hard time persuading other South American leaders, correspondents say.
Many countries in the region are improving their ties with Venezuela.[...]
BBC South America correspondent Tom Gibb says Washington is clearly worried that the strongly anti-US coca grower, Evo Morales, who has led many of the Bolivian protests, could win elections there in December.
Mr Rumsfeld's accusation represents a significant stepping-up of attempts to isolate the left-wing Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, our correspondent says.
But countries like Brazil and Argentina are increasing economic and political co-operation with Mr Chavez rather than trying to isolate him.
And many analysts dispute Washington's view, saying the turmoil in Bolivia owes more to home-grown factors than external influence.
And, just in case you don't see this in the mainstream news...While participating as a guest at 16th World Youth Festival, left-wing Bolivian political leader Evo Morales asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to extend the reach of “Operacion Milagro,” a program of solidarity between Latin American nations.
“This program will be a great aid to break up with neo-liberalist organisms like the World Bank which represent the interests of capitalists,” stated Morales, leader of the Socialist Party in his country.
Shortly, Bolivia will be included in Cuba’s free healthcare program where plans are to assist close to 10,000 impoverished Bolivians to recover their vision. Evo Morales also requested Venezuela’s state oil company for technical assistance in reestablishing the Bolivian Oil and Gas Company.
The U.S. military is conducting secretive operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there. Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe trouble is brewing. However, the U.S. embassy in Paraguay denies the base exists and describes the military activity as routine. According to an article in the Bolivian newspaper, El Deber, a U.S. base is being developed in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to 16,000 troops. A contingent of 500 U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay on July 1st with planes, weapons, equipment and ammunition.
With Bolivia’s recent uprisings, their enormous gas reserves, and a presidential election on the way, this questionable activity could pave the way for a U.S. intervention. Rumors of Al Qaeda training grounds near Paraguay may also work to the Bush administration’s advantage as it makes a case for military operations in the region.
On May 26, 2005 the Paraguayan senate approved the entrance of the troops, granting them total immunity, free from Paraguayan and International Criminal Court jurisdiction. The legislature is due to expire in December 2006, but is automatically extendable. Since December 2004, the U.S. has been pressuring Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which would grant immunity to U.S. military. The Bush administration threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic and military aid if they refused to sign the deal. Paraguay was the only country to accept the offer.[...]
U.S. military operations and assistance are nothing new in the region. However, the timing of these activities appears to be more than a coincidence. Bolivia is scheduled to have presidential election in December 2005 and leftist coca grower leader and congressman, Evo Morales may have a strong chance at winning.
Yes, and let's pretend that it isn't the United States that is the major customer - free market, you know - supply and demand. There wouldn't be a supply if there weren't a demand.The United States said on Friday that it had revoked the visas for three high-ranking Venezuelan military officers suspected of drug trafficking, prompting President Hugo Chávez's government to retaliate by promising to withdraw diplomatic immunity for American narcotics agents in Venezuela.
"For every attack, there will be a reaction; for every strike, a strike back; for every measure, a corresponding measure; and the revoking of visas will mean reciprocal action," Vice President José Vicente Rangel told reporters in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, he added, "has functioned in Venezuela with diplomatic immunity because they operate as employees of the U.S. Embassy. That privilege is over."[...]
Mr. Rangel called the decision to pull the visas political and hailed the officers' service as "impeccable." The American accusations, he said were "grave and inconsiderate."
"To reach that conclusion you have to have a trial," he said of the accusations. "I think it's an irresponsibility on the part of the United States."
American officials, though, have raised serious concerns for months about what they say is a spike in trafficking through Venezuela, which does not produce cocaine but is considered a major conduit country.
Caracas, Venezuela, August 8, 2005 —President Chavez confirmed earlier reports that Venezuela will suspend its cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States. Chavez accused the DEA of being engaged in espionage and drug trafficking.
Chavez assured that Venezuela would continue to combat drugs, but that it would do so without the help of the DEA. That is, Venezuelan officials would cooperate with other foreign drug enforcement agencies, such as those of Colombia, France, Spain, Russia, and China. “The DEA isn't absolutely necessary for the fight against drug trafficking,” said Chavez.[...]
Two weeks ago Minister of the Interior and of justice, Jesse Chacon, was the first to announce the break-off of the government’s cooperation with the DEA, saying that the DEA was operating above Venezuelan law and outside of the control or oversight of Venezuelan authorities in Venezuela. “The war on narco-trafficking will be conducted from Venezuela territory under parameters defined by the Venezuelan government and that means that no international organ is above the Venezuelan law,” said Chacon. “If the DEA wants to work with the Venezuelan government, it should do so under defined parameters or at least on the basis of a bilateral agreement that respects the principle of reciprocity,” he added.
Chávez said that, far from abandoning efforts to combat trafficking and money laundering in his own country, his government had decided that – as Narco News has reported for over five years – the DEA’s war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs.
Ereli’s limp response was to charge that Venezuela’s statements about DEA crimes are merely noise designed to distract from what he said was the country’s own increasingly poor performance on drug control, a statement which the U.S. government’s own past statements and reports show to be untrue. Ereli furthermore revived one of the U.S.’s oldest political weapons in the drug war, threatening to end Venezuela’s certification as a country participating in anti-drug efforts.[...]
The United States has only ever denied counter-narcotics certification to two Latin American countries. One is Colombia. The other is Panama, and that certification denial was quickly followed by a bloody U.S. invasion.
Previous Venezuela postsThe United States is considering punishing Venezuela with sanctions for breaking off work with U.S. anti-drug agents in the world's top cocaine-exporting region, the State Department said on Monday.
In a new blow to fraying ties between the United States and a key oil supplier, President Hugo Chávez said on Sunday he had suspended cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration because it was unnecessary and accused the U.S. agency of spying on his government.[...]
Chávez said Venezuela would continue to work with international
organizations to combat drug trafficking.
Next month, the State Department must by law judge if Venezuela has failed to cooperate in the drug war, a decision that could trigger a range of sanctions including blocking cheap credit for businesses and counternarcotics aid.
Aug. 9, 2005
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told thousands of visiting students that if U.S. forces were to invade the South American country, they would be soundly defeated.[...]
He spoke during the opening ceremony of a world youth festival bringing together student delegations from across the world and convened under the slogan "Against Imperialism and War." Chavez called the United States the "most savage, cruel and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world."
And here's another one from Al Giordano: Chávez: DEA “Supports Narco-Trafficking” in VenezuelaFrom Newsday, July 30:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt at a Roman Catholic shrine outside the Honduran capital, officials said Saturday.
Special Agent Timothy Markey was visiting the shrine Friday when two assailants confronted him and shot him twice, according to Honduran federal police and the DEA. Markey was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
...
Markey began his DEA service in September 1989, according to a statement from the agency. He was assigned to the General Watch Unit at the El Paso Intelligence Center, in Texas, at the time of his death.[...]
And that's about all there is, and probably ever will be, in the American press about the death of Special Agent Markey. Except there may be much more, according to DEA Watch, which exists "to provide all special agents and employees of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and other narcotics agencies a confidentiality protected platform to express job related and other concerns they could not normally raise to higher-ups, the media or co-workers without exposing themselves to punishment, ridicule, revenge or possible physical harm."
Here are some of those confidential DEA voices commenting on Markey, whom they call "the man who knew too much":[...]
There is a major international incident now going on in Venezuela involving DEA. The top people in VZ want nothing to do with DEA because they say our people are part of the problem and not part of the solution. There was talk that Markey was to be interviewd by certain members of Congress to find out what Markey could tell them about the shenanigans in the VZ DEA office. Hmmmm.
[...]
When I talked to Tim just a few days ago he told me he would be meeting with a congressman about what went down in Venezuela a few years ago. Apparently the Bush-Cheney oil people are stirring up a lot of trouble in Venezuela to topple the government so that Halliburton and other companies can move in to take over the oil fields. Apparently Tim knew about some of what was going on just after Bush and Cheney first came to office. Everyone the Bush people didn't consider safe -- or had too much information -- was forced out of Venezuela. There is far more to this incident than meets the eye. Fortunately for Bush he has Tandy who will sweep Tim's death under the rug as nothing more than a case of robbery. Tim died for oil. Another casualty of the Bush-Cheney Oil Wars.
[...]
With US-Venezuelan relations currently at a boiling point and military action not unthinkable, along with Congress digging into Markey's reports about DEA corruption in Venezuela, the obvious answer is Markey knew too much.
[...]
Here are two headlines from Caracas on Friday, the day Markey died: Venezuelan General Lopez Hidalgo rules out any agreement with DEA and US Ambassador laments probe into alleged DEA irregularities.
Previous Venezuela posts
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P.S. I would also keep an eye out for agent Sandalio Gonzales (also at the El Paso DEA office), and the reporter who's writing about him, Bill Conroy.
After the rumble of tanks died down and the last soldier high-stepped past the spectators' pavilion, President Hugo Chavez told the thousands attending Venezuela's Independence Day parade July 5 that no invading army could match the fighting force that had just marched by, "armed to the teeth." The hypothetical invasion he invoked was patently clear: Two days before, Chavez had announced the discovery of evidence that the United States had drawn up blueprints to invade Venezuela, a plan he said was code-named "Operation Balboa." American officials dismissed the claim as fiction, just as they have denied Chavez's repeated assertions that the CIA is trying to assassinate him, or that the Bush administration was behind the military coup that briefly toppled his government in April 2002. There is little doubt, however, that relations between Venezuela and the United States, strained for years, are plunging to new lows.[...]
Chavez asserts that the 21st-century equivalent of the Cold War is the developed world's thirst for oil -- and its attempts to manipulate weaker governments to secure it. Oil-rich Venezuela sells 60 to 65 percent of its crude oil to the United States, making it the fourth-largest oil supplier to the U.S. market. This year, near-record-high oil prices have helped Chavez finance a variety of social programs that he vows will make the country more independent of U.S. influence.
Observers say the oil revenue also has emboldened Chavez's foreign policy strategy. He has recently inked oil agreements with Argentina, Brazil and his Caribbean neighbors and has launched efforts to strengthen ties with China through oil accords. Rafael Quiroz, an oil industry analyst in Caracas, said the Chavez government believes that the conflict between developing countries endowed with such natural resources and nations with high demands will only intensify in coming years. Chavez would like to precipitate that conflict, Quiroz said. "I think he's correct to try to speed up that kind of confrontation, because the developing world -- where 85 percent of world reserves are -- will stand in a better place after that," Quiroz said. "Every day it is more apparent that oil is fundamental for Venezuela in its international relations, and it is the main ingredient Chavez uses to form strategic alliances."
Previous Venezuela postsCARACAS, Jul 21 (IPS) - The Venezuelan Congress approved a resolution opposing a decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to finance radio and TV broadcasts to Venezuela with the aim of countering Telesur, a new pan-Latin American station.
Telesur, a Venezuelan government initiative undertaken in association with Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, has already drawn the wrath of the United States even before it goes on the air this Sunday.
The U.S. lower house of Congress passed an amendment Wednesday "to initiate radio and television broadcasts that will provide a consistently accurate, objective, and comprehensive source of news to Venezuela" to counter Telesur's "anti-Americanism," in the words of Republican Rep. Connie Mack of Florida, who sponsored the amendment.[...]
If the amendment makes it through the Senate and Washington tries to interfere with Venezuela's airwaves, "we will take measures to neutralise the attempt, and what we will have is a kind of electronic warfare," said [Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.]
[...]
"It is a preposterous imperialist idea that should not surprise us because we know what the U.S. government is capable of," [...] "There is nothing more dangerous than a desperate giant."
And might I add, please, that Venezuela's is a democratic government. Apparently no one wants to correct the Rumsfiend in that blatantly misleading statement. American public none the wiser, we can lump Venezuela in the commie dictator category.The American ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, went on Venezuelan tv to criticize the government for its lack of cooperation with the US on terrorism and drugs. The AP story reporting this does not say if Brownfield was asked when the US is going to extradite Luis Posada Carriles.
Also attacking Venezuela this weekend was Donald Rumsfeld, who penned an editorial for the Knight-Ridder chain in support of CAFTA, as necessary to keep Central America from going communist, or something. “Our neighbors do not live in a vacuum, and they are facing many pressures to turn away from a pro-American stance. Cuba and Venezuela -- no friends to the United States -- are promoting radicalism and attempting to subvert the democratic governments in the region.” Of course he offers no proof of this, but then what are his definitions of “promoting” and “radicalism” anyway? The fact that he uses the phrase “promoting radicalism” as if it were a heinous criminal act is a dead giveaway, if one were needed, that his real problem with Cuba and Venezuela is political.
Indeed, CAFTA - the Central American equivalent of NAFTA, an economic pact - is equated in The Fiend's article with democracy. See how that works? All you American simpletons will think capitalism and democracy are interchangeable (if you don't already).Cuba and Venezuela -- no friends to the United States -- are promoting radicalism and attempting to subvert the democratic governments in the region. Indeed, Venezuela is actively lobbying local legislators in Central America to vote against CAFTA.
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Corexit: More toxic than the oil
IVAW: Iraq Veterans Against the War
