More behind the scenes business with the US trying to plan an invasion of Iraq. This would be junior’s Gulf War 2.
US returns to bad old ways in Venezuela by Wayne Madsen in Washington DC and Richard M. Bennett
The one important thing to be learnt from the Venezuelan coup is that the United States has not changed its view that only Governments acceptable to Washington can be allowed to survive in Latin America and that like it or not, the United States will undermine and help overthrow even legally elected administrations if it so chooses. This became obvious when Pentagon sources gleefully revealed that the United States provided critical military and intelligence support to the Venezuelan military coup against President Hugo Chavez on Friday 12th April.
Contrary to statements made by the Bush administration and the US government, the Venezuela coup was planned in advance and was aided by US intelligence. The Bush administration must be nostalgic for the days when they could assassinate and depose elected governments with impunity. It turns out according to inside sources that the US provided military and intelligence support: (Source: Narconews, Three Days that Shook the Media.)
We presume the increase in personnel – or individuals posing as personnel at the MIL GROUP – was not due to a sudden desire by Washington to sell more arms to the Chavez government.
Former National Security Agency officer Wayne Madsen, writing with Richard M. Bennett, reveal that the U.S. participation in the failed coup attempt was not only financial, but military. Reporting from the National Press Building in Washington, they have just blown the roof off of U.S. government denials of involvement in the coup with this Intelligence Report:
From eastern Colombia, CIA and US contract military personnel, ostensibly used for counter-narcotics operations, stood by to provide logistics support for the leading members of the coup. Their activities were centred at the Marandua airfield and along the border with Venezuela. Patrol aircraft operating from the US Forward Operating Location (FOL) in Manta, Ecuador also provided intelligence support for the military move against Chavez. Additional USN vessels on a training exercise in the Outer Range of the US Navy’s Southern Puerto Rican Operating Area also stood by in the event the coup against Chavez faltered, thus requiring a military evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela. The ships included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the destroyers USS Barry, Laboon, Mahan, and Arthur W. Radford. Some of the latter vessels reportedly had NSA Direct Support Units aboard to provide additional signals intelligence support to US Special Operations and intelligence personnel deployed on the ground in close co-operation with the Venezuelan Army and along the Colombian side of the border.
Does this mean that part of Plan Colombia involves aiding groups against Chavez? This is outrageous. The media in the US has given the false impression that the coup was an impromptu event. The evidence suggests an operation planned well in advance with the aid of the United States which has an obvious stake in the outcome. According to vheadline a colorful presidential sash had been ordered from Spain for the interim president, Carmona.
Executive Vice President Diosdado Cabello has shown the newly-discovered trophy to a small group of journalists and says “it clearly shows that the coup had been planned and there was nothing spontaneous about it.”
Cabello reveals that an investigation into the April 11 killings will be undertaken … that he was meant to be the first victim … “we’re searching for TV footage from other angles other than the Televen shots of Bolivarian armed groups firing from the bridge.”
I was looking over at c-span.org seeing what would be on Washington Journal in the morning when I got off work, and I saw a link to a segment where they had talked to the creator of the website, thelastamericanwarriors.com, for a few minutes. Evidently, they review websites every saturday or so. Anyway, it’s really a great site. Lots of video and other resources. I spent a few hours watching clips from a documentary on the Kennedy Assassination. There were also some great video clips from the Guerrilla News Network. Stop by and check it out.
Great piece by the BBC’s Tom Gibb:
But after his removal, the White House reaction appeared remarkably different – with officials clearly pleased at the result.
Far from condemning the ouster of a democratically-elected president, US officials blamed the crisis on President Chavez himself – accusing him of ordering supporters to open fire on anti-government demonstrators.
The US-supported coup against Hugo Chavez backfired and now the US looks like a deceitful liar. Bush himself repeated the lies that Chavez had resigned. The statements around the world repeating that Chavez had resigned, despite any evidence, were craven attempts to pass on the necessary legitimacy to the corporate junta which had hoped to rule. It is disgusting that the US took such measures to support a coup against a democratically elected official and played a part offering succor and vocal support to the coup.
In an article today the Bush administration chided from atop their moral high ground that Chavez should respect democracy and constitutional process. HUH? They are the ones who supported oil executive, Pedro Carmona as the new dictator of Venezuela. The first thing Carmona did was dissolve the government and the constitution. Even if Chavez had really resigned his vice-president should have taken over. The Bush administration is simply trying to save face in what is shaping up to be a huge embarrassment for them since they had made it abundantly clear that they had no problems with an extraconstitutional seizure of power.
Bush also repeated the half-truths about the demonstrations, implying that the protests were simply a peaceful expression by Venezuelans opposed to Chavez’s policies: Chavez “suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people. … It led very quickly to a combustible situation in which Chavez resigned.” The truth is the protests were arranged and controlled by the corporate interests which led the coup. The private media in Venezuela actively attempted to control and manipulate information. Eye-witnesses reported that the corporate media in Venezuela urged people to hit the streets to protest and also tried to give the impression that Chavez had resigned after having ordered soldiers to fire on civilians. There is no evidence of any of this. Even once people hit the streets again to protest Chavez’s ouster the media downplayed the numbers and aired almost no footage of it. This differs greatly from how they charged the previous protests.
You can expect some heads to roll despite the talk of reconciliation. If I played some part in the coup I would hit the road. Condoleezza Rice, clearly attempting to protect the Bush Amdimistration’s friends among the corporate junta, admonished Chavez that “This is no time for a witch hunt. This is a time for national reconciliation in Venezuela.”
Related links:
Narconews has been doing a great job of covering the Chavez coup. Actually, Narconews is a great resource for information on the Drug War and on Central South America in general. Definitely check them out. Here are some good links I’ve snatched off their site:
Hugo Chávez, who has won a new mandate at the July elections, has engaged in a series of sweeping reforms since his triumphant election as president of Venezuela in 1998: Congress has been dissolved and a new constitution approved. But despite a spectacular increase in oil revenue, he has failed to remedy serious economic and social problems, and observers wonder if his current populism may not degenerate into despotism.
by GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Night was falling as Carlos Andrés Pérez got off the plane from Davos in Switzerland. He was surprised to see that General Fernando Ochoa Antich, his minister of defence, had come to meet him. “What is the matter,” Pérez asked, intrigued. Antich was so persuasive and reassuring that the president did not drive to the Miraflores palace, in the centre of Caracas, but to his residence at La Casona. He was dropping off to sleep when Antich woke him with a phonecall to tell him that a military uprising had started in the Maracay region. He had only just reached the Miraflores palace when the first artillery salvoes were heard.
That was on 4 February 1992. Colonel Hugo Chávez Frías, who has an almost religious obsession with historic dates, directed the revolt from improvised headquarters in La Planicie museum. Pérez realised that his only hope was to rally popular support and went to the television studios to speak to the nation. Two hours later the coup was over. Chávez surrendered, but on condition that he too might speak to the people.
The young Creole colonel, with his paratrooper’s red beret and admirable gift for public speaking, took full responsibility for the movement. His broadcast speech was a political master stroke. He spent two years in prison before being amnestied by President Rafael Caldera. However, many of his supporters – and opponents – realised that his speech, at a moment of defeat, was the start of an electoral campaign that would ultimately make him president of the republic.
The Isrealis have been busy hiding the bodies of the 400-500 people they killed in their recent attempts at mass murder. Many bodies buried in mass graves and carried off in trucks. You didn’t see nothing.