Pentagon Official Admits Lack of Proof to Link Venezuela to Colombian Guer

[Say_What]

Otto Reich and the latest Chihuahua to the region, Noriega, won't be happy about this...

<clips>

The Commander of the Pentagon's U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), General James T. Hill, talked to reporters after participating at a seminar at the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). Hill was asked about the allegations made by Linda Robinson in a recent U.S. News & World Report article, which claim that the Venezuelan government is collaborating with Islamic radical groups, and Colombian Guerrillas. "We don't have any proof to validate that article," said Hill.

Linda Robinson, the author of the controversial U.S. News & World Report article, and one of the panelists at the seminar, said, "I don't want to argue with the Venezuelan Government or with the U.S. Southern Command. The proof is in the article." Robinson's article repeatedly cites "unnamed U.S. government sources."

"We don't have definite proof of any of the coordination described here," said Hill referring to the debate that took place at the CSIS about whether or not Venezuela provides aid to Colombian guerrillas.

Colombian General Jorge Enrique Mora said that terrorists and narcotraficants use Colombia's borders for their own benefit. "We have found FARC guerrilla camps in Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela. These organizations violate border restrictions in order to evade Colombian military troops, and they represent a threat to our neighbors."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1074

[ugarte]

1. Like I believe anything the Colombian military says

This is the same Bush shit they're saying about Syria, as if any country can totally control its borders.

[T Roosevelt]

2. Trying to set Venezuela up as the next target?

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. Soon we'll be invading the beaches in Venezuela...oh, and don't forget to secure that oil while your there.

[Mairead]

3. You bet. I'd imagine the 10000 soldiers in Bolivia might have that put

on their plates just as soon as the CIA can manage to create some fake unrest in Venezuela.

[Say_What]

4. a question

that's the second time I've seen that 10,000 number--do you have a link? I'm curious to read about this.

Thanks,
SW

[Mairead]

12. No, I don't offhand--it was just something I read at DU the other day

I assumed it was well-known and I was, as usual, behind the times. It's not, huh?

[Say_What]

16. There might have been a Pentagon statement

that said they would send troops to Bolivia to protect US citizens and the embassy, but I can't find it--however, this translation from a Bolivian news website about what the COB is demanding says that the Pentagon did announce that troops would be sent (see clip).

A statement like that wouldn't surprise me, it's just that I just haven't read it in any of the articles I've read and I've been following this pretty closely.

You can read the entire COB demands list at the following thread. <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=178497#178603>

...The enlarged session of the COB also approved a letter that will be sent to the acting president of the National Congress, Carlos D. Mesa, in which the COB “demands that the Congress publicly reject any request to allow foreign troops to enter Bolivian territory.” This letter followed hot on the heels of an announcement that the Pentagon would be sending troops to Bolivia to defend U.S. citizens and the U.S. embassy.

They are demanding that the U.S. not interfere.

[Mairead]

17. "They are demanding that the U.S. not interfere."

Good on them! I really hope they can make it stick!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Here's commentary on the reporter, Linda Robinson

{snip) American reporting on Venezuela


US News & World Report skips the light fantastic in regurgitated paranoid claims

by Roy S. Carson



In a frightful anti-Venezuelan diatribe due to be published in the October 6 issue of the Washington-based US News & World Report, editorial writer Linda Robinson has apparently swallowed reams of Venezuelan anti-government disinformation in claims that "In oil-rich Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends bad actors from the Mideast, Colombia, and Cuba."

Robinson attempts to clarify that: The (Colombian) FARC's principal camp in Venezuela is in the Perija mountains near an Indian village called Resumidero, according to maps and testimony from FARC deserters (location: Latitude: N 10` 29'56''; Longitude W72' 44'56'')

She then goes in intemperately to claim that "the oil-rich but politically unstable nation of Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists." For legal jurisprudence she puts the words in the mouths of unnamed senior US military and intelligence officials adding that Bush administration aides "see this as an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida." (snip)

(snip) While we fall off our chairs laughing at the US News & World Report's obvious ignorance of the deplorable state of affairs at ONI-DIEX, where any idea of a spreadsheet of names and numbers is in the realm of 22nd Century fantasy, the whole half-cocked anti-Venezuelan propaganda blast is, unfortunately, nothing out of the ordinary ... it's just so patently silly that a news magazine of US News & World Report's supposed prestige should have fallen so hook, line and sinker for such deliberate lies. (snip/...)

http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_09/issue_19/review_02.html

Here's Robinson:

1999 Cabot Prizes for reporting on Latin America were awarded to (from left) Jorge Zepeda Patterson, editor-in-chief of Público Guadalajara, Mexico; Linda Robinson, Latin America bureau chief of U.S. News & World Report; and Juan Tamayo, Latin America coorespondent, The Miami Herald.

Some time ago, I traced her to a conservative organization, where both Condoleeza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz have gone to make speeches, which is funded by both American government funds, and also funds from a conservative "think tank" bearing the names of two brothers. I just can't remember their names, and actually don't have the time to go off looking for them again right now. She's one wierd person.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here's one article discussing Linda's work

(snip)


U.S. News & World Report Spreads Disinformation about Chavez
Government Support for Terrorism Thursday, Oct 02, 2003

By: Gregory Wilpert

An article recently appeared in one of the largest U.S. news
magazines, an article which will remind well-informed readers of a
typical disinformation campaign. The article in question, “Terror
Close to Home,” by Linda Robinson, appeared in U.S. News and World
Report (10/6/03) and claims to have evidence that Venezuela’s
President, Hugo Chavez, is “flirting with terrorism.” The appearance
of a baseless article like this, combined with recent statements by
Gen. James Hill, head of the Southern Command, that Venezuela’s
Margarita Island is a haven for Islamic terrorist groups, suggests
that the Bush administration is setting the stage for declaring
Venezuela a “rogue” state. (snip)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/message/2772

[Judi Lynn]

8. Biographical info. on the author

(snip) Linda Robinson, is the Latin America bureau chief of U.S. News & World Report and a 1999 recipient of Columbia University´s Graduate School of Journalism, Maria Moors Cabot Prize for courageous, comprehensive and compassionate reporting on Latin America.

Linda Robinson, has traveled throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, reporting and writing over 200 articles on such varied topics as refugee crises, guerrilla conflicts, drug trafficking, electoral upsets, coup attempts, squatters’ movements and trade accords. She has visited Cuba 20 times and interviewed Fidel Castro twice, as well as many other Latin American presidents. Her reporting anticipated the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, and her investigative work includes exposés of money laundering by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, improprieties at Radio Marti, links between Mexican Raul Salinas and Colombian cartels, and U.S. plans for invading Cuba in the 1960s. Robinson has written freelance articles for magazines such as World Policy Journal, Survival, and Foreign Affairs, and is the author of Intervention or Neglect, a book about Central America and Panama. She was senior editor at Foreign Affairs quarterly, and a writer and editor at the Wilson Quarterly. She frequently addresses public audiences and foreign policy groups, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. (snip/)

http://www.petroleumworld.com/SuF100503.htm

The International Institute for Strategic Studies:
http://www.iiss.org/aboutiiss.php

The Council on Foreign Relations:
http://www.cfr.org/

[goforit]

6. May the "Good Force" stand Tall amongst the Evil that surrounds us.

Stop this tyrrany now!!!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. In other news

No evidence links the Yakuza to the Columbia disaster.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. More on Linda Robinson...

The Maria Moors Cabot Prizes
<http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/events/cabot/cabot-awards1999.asp>

"Linda Robinson, Latin America bureau chief of U.S. News & World Report since 1989, has shown unusual skill and tenacity at focusing the attention of American readers on the region. She has traveled throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, reporting and writing over 200 articles on such varied topics as refugee crises, guerrilla conflicts, drug trafficking, electoral upsets, coup attempts, squatters’ movements and trade accords. She has visited Cuba 20 times and interviewed Fidel Castro twice, as well as many other Latin American presidents. Her reporting anticipated the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, and her investigative work includes exposés of money laundering by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, improprieties at Radio Marti, links between Mexican Raul Salinas and Colombian cartels, and U.S. plans for invading Cuba in the 1960s. Robinson has written freelance articles for magazines such as World Policy Journal, Survival, and Foreign Affairs, and is the author of Intervention or Neglect, a book about Central America and Panama. She was senior editor at Foreign Affairs quarterly, and a writer and editor at the Wilson Quarterly. She frequently addresses public audiences and foreign policy groups, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies."

[Judi Lynn]

11. Look at the sponsors of the award

Underwriters
Cisneros Group of Companies
The Miami Herald
The Hearst Corporation
Bloomberg
Grupo Clarin

Patrons
Anonymous
AEA Investors Inc.
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
General Motors Corporation
McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
Salomon Smith Barney
W. Galen Weston, O.C.
The Wooden Nickel Foundation

Sponsors
Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.
The Honorable Conrad Black
Roberto Bonetti
Burson-Marsteller
Business Week
Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation, Inc.
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation
McCormick Tribune Foundation
Pittman Family Foundation
Reuters
David Rockefeller
Scripps Howard Foundation
Spalding Sports Worldwide
Violy, Byorum & Partners, LLC


Contributors
Bacardi-Martini, USA
The Boston Globe
John and Jane Bradley
Manoel and Leda Brito
John G. L. Cabot
Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells LLP
Coca-Cola Company Latin America
Conde Nast Traveler
El Comercio
El Imparcial
El Nuevo Dia
El Universal
Dr. Pamela Falk and Edward C. Wallace
Benjamin H. Gershon
The Gleaner
Kavaler Associates
Kissinger McLarty Associates
Kruger Inc.
Angela and David Millan-Epstein
Jim & Jan Moran and JM Family Enterprises
The New York Times Company
Parade Publications
Playboy Foundation
Edward Seaton
Elizabeth C. Sluder
Somerset Capital Group, Ltd.
The Taubman Company
Terri Thompson
Seymour Topping
Zilkha Foundation, Inc.
Zubi Advertising Services, Inc.
Elizabeth Plater Zyberk

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/events/cabot/cabot-awards2000.asp

Don't have time to check the others, running in and out of the house, but some of those organizations are VERY right-wing, very VERY. As in Cisneros is a personal friend of George H. W. Bush, and owns a ton of media in Venezuela, and the Spanish Globovision, and Univision in the States. Conrad Black owns the British Telegraph, and the Jerusalem Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, and a host of smaller papers, and is a personal friend of Richard Perle. ETC, ETC.


On edit:


Dean Tom Goldstein with his wife, Leslie, and Susana and Alberto Ibargüen, co-chair of the Cabot Prize dinner, and publisher of The Miami Herald.



To the Cuba watchers here, I just discovered on the link I just listed, after looking up the name of the man in the top right photo, the publisher of the Miami Herald, that his father is a Cuban "exile" who moved to Puerto Rico. Did NOT know the Miami Herald had an exile publisher now. (You may remember that the previous publisher, David Lawrence, received so many death threats after displeasing the "exile" community, he and his wife both started using remote car starters to start their cars. Damned nasty.)

(snip) Media/Mediator
Alberto Ibarguen L'74
Publisher, The Miami Herald & El Nuevo Herald
Chairman, The Miami Herald Publishing Group

"So many people in the Miami community came to the United States under the same circumstances. And, if it’s not their own story, then it’s the story of someone they know,” states Alberto Ibargüen. Born in Puerto Rico of a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother, Ibargüen possesses a unique empathy for this scenario that has emboldened the Miami Cuban-exile community and riveted the world to the ongoing serial drama.

For the first week of January a sampling of issues of El Nuevo Herald, Miami’s dominant Spanish language newspaper, showed the wide-eyed expression of Elián González above the fold with a smaller picture of Dan Marino’s season-ending victory for the Dolphins. In its parent paper, the English language Miami Herald, the same images were shown but in reverse proportion. It is a telling illustration of the co-existence of communities on parallel tracks in Miami with different issues of importance to them. Of the city’s 1.4 million Hispanics, more than fifty percent are of Cuban origin. (snip/...)

http://www.law.upenn.edu/alumnijournal/spring2000/feature2/media.html

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Excellent work! I smelled something of a rightwing nature...

...but didn't have the time to look for it earlier today. Venezuela is also a member of OPEC...how oddly coincidental that the Bushies either control, or are going after, nearly all of the OPEC nations.

OPEC Membership

NOTES:
b/d barrels per day
cu m cubic metres
Source OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2001

Listed by Proven Crude Oil Reserves:

Saudi Arabia: Under increasing pressure by the U. S.

Population - 20,810,000
Value of petroleum exports - $62,981,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 262,697,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 7,888,900 b/d
Crude oil exports - 6,035,900 b/d

Iraq: Occupied by the U. S. & UK

Population - 23,600,000
Value of petroleum exports - $12,676,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 112,500,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 2,593,700 b/d
Crude oil exports - 1,710,200 b/d

Iran: Threatened by the U. S.

Population - 64,583,000
Value of petroleum exports - $21,420,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 99,080,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 3,572,000 b/d
Crude oil exports - 2,446,000 b/d

United Arab Emirates: Controlled by the U. S.

Population - 3,280,000
Value of petroleum exports - $22,414,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 97,800,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 2,114,200 b/d
Crude oil exports - 1,786,700 b/d

Kuwait: Controlled by the U. S.

Population - 2,275,000
Value of petroleum exports - $14,975,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 96,500,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 1,947,000 b/d
Crude oil exports - 1,214,100 b/d

Venezuela: Coup attempts backed by U. S. have failed to date

Population - 24,600,000
Value of petroleum exports - $20,300,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 77,685,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 2,791,900 b/d
Crude oil exports - 1,964,700 b/d

Libya: Has recently settled with survivors of PanAm flight

Population - 5,402,000
Value of petroleum exports - $10,880,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 36,000,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 1,323,500 b/d
Crude oil exports - 987,600 b/d

Nigeria: In an area that is becoming increasingly more unstable

Population: 130,296,000
Value of petroleum exports - $17,188,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 31,506,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 2,017,600 b/d
Crude oil exports - 2,089,400

Qatar: Controlled by the U. S.

Population - 580,000
Value of petroleum exports - $6,964,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 15,204,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 632,900 b/d
Crude oil exports - 605,500 b/d

Algeria:

Population - 31,040,000
Value of petroleum exports - $11,790,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 11,314,000 barrels
Crude oil production: 776,000 b/d
Crude oil exports - 441,500 b/d

Indonesia:

Population - 213,585,000
Value of petroleum exports - $8,944,000,000
Proven crude oil reserves - 5,123,000,000 barrels
Crude oil production - 1,214,200 b/d
Crude oil exports - 599,200 b/d

[stickdog]

14. Wotta surprize!

Gomer Pyle will be devastated.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Put a sock in it!

(snip) Venezuela accuses Colombia minister of hurting ties



CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 18 — Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton on Saturday called Colombia's defense minister a ''thorn in the side'' of bilateral relations because of her allegations that Venezuela was siding with left-wing Colombian rebels.

Chaderton was responding to remarks by Marta Lucia Ramirez in New York Friday in which she said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government was not doing enough to stop Colombian Marxist guerrillas from operating from the Venezuelan side of the frontier. (snip)

(snip) In her remarks at the Harvard Club in New York, Ramirez said there was information that the rebels were receiving training and support in Venezuela.

Chaderton said Ramirez appeared to have forgotten that Venezuela had backed the peace efforts of several Colombian governments and had also given refuge over the years to more than three million Colombians fleeing ''terrorism and drug-trafficking'' in their own country.

In addition, he accused the Colombian minister of persuading ''misinformed and malicious U.S. generals'' to also criticize Chavez's government for allegedly supporting ''terrorist'' groups like Colombia's FARC rebels. (snip/...)

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters10-18-143534.asp?reg=AMERICAS

[Judi Lynn]

18. Venezuela puts a spoke in Miami's bid for FTAA HQ

Venezuela puts a spoke in Miami's bid for FTAA HQ

Venezuela's main negotiator in the Free Trade for the Americas Agreement (FTAA), Victor Alvarez has put a spoke in the cogs of Miami and Atlanta's bid to become FTAA center of activities.

Alvarez says Venezuela is supporting a bid by Trinidad & Tobago to become HQ because he says such an organization as the FTAA would have a positive effect on smaller economies. While the majority of Latin America countries follow the US line and plump for automatic solidarity with Miami as HQ, Venezuela says it's time to show that the FTAA is not just for the USA and to assert that weaker economies should feel the spin-off.

Several Caribbean countries are backing Port of Spain as FTAA HQ but reaching a decision between 34 countries will not be easy. Apart from Miami and Atlanta, Puebla and Cancun (Mexico) are engaged in lobbying campaigns. (snip/...)

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=12052