U.S. says Venezuela no longer ally in war on drugs

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 16, 2005, 1:34AM

U.S. says Venezuela no longer ally in war on drugs
Bush stops short of cutting aid to the nation because money helps fund democracy efforts
By STEVEN DUDLEY and PABLO BACHELET
Miami Herald

WASHINGTON - President Bush has taken Venezuela off his list of allies in the war on drugs, saying that President Hugo Chavez spurned anti-drug cooperation with U.S. officials and fired its effective law enforcement officers.
But the White House waived the cuts in U.S. foreign aid usually attached to the "decertification" so that it can continue to support pro-democracy groups in Venezuela that oppose the leftist Chavez.
(snip)

The U.S. State Department's No. 3 official, Nicholas Burns, announced the Bush administration decision Thursday in New York City about the time Chavez was arriving there for a U.N. summit gathering.

Accompanying Burns, U.S. drug czar John Walters said that in the past Venezuelan cooperation on drugs was "quite successful" but that Chavez now "no longer wants a productive relationship."

Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel said of the annual certification process required by U.S. law, "We reject it. ... it's infantile."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3356406
(Free registration required)

[rooboy]

1. Afghtanistan poppy crop shows that 'war on drugs' is pure bullshit. n/t

[lvx35]

2. No shit!

And regarding Chavez firing the "effective" cops...Those were the ones who tortured people and sodomized children, just like the "effective" interrorgators at Abu Graib, right Bush????

[cire4]

3. Excellent news!

Venezuela should be proud that Bush no longer considers the country a partner in the United States' crimes against Latin America.

[mrfrapp]

4. Spin

"But the White House waived the cuts in U.S. foreign aid usually attached to the "decertification" so that it can continue to support pro-democracy groups in Venezuela that oppose the leftist Chavez."

Of course, the intention here is to imply that Chavez is anti-democracy. Complete nonsense.

[WCGreen]

13. Another Insurgency....

Brough to yo by Becthel, Halliburton and those crazy guys at Lockhead Martin

[gratuitous]

18. Yes, it is complete nonsense

I wonder if it's generally known that Chavez was elected president of Venezuela by a much larger percentage than old George "Landslide" Bush? Surely in the interest of fairness and balance, the article is at pains to point that out. Right?

Yeah, I know. I'm smiling wryly, too.

[Frances]

22. Many people think that U.S. aid helps poor people

but this article makes clear that the aid in Venezuela is being used to destabilize a democratically elected government.

[redqueen]

30. Yes, the clueless American public... so gullible...

the very reason they keep underfunding education, year after year.

[TheFarseer]

32. Good catch

We're funding political parties in Venezuela?!?! Couldn't this cash be used to, I don't know, strengthen levies or something? This campaign to undermine Chavez disturbs me. He is a Venezuelan national hero IMO and we try to paint him with the same brush a Stalin. The worst thing is, uninformed people believe the RW rhetoric. People who stand up for Chavez, will look as nutty as people who stand up for Castro someday soon.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. And if they switch to the Euro next week they will have

biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, they will be harboring aliens from outer space, and they will be planning on invading Amurka for her soybeans and antiques.

[jody]

6. "waived the cuts in U.S. foreign aid" so US can fund anti Chavez forces.

Chavez might say "Go ahead, make my day punk, my oil fields are full"

[Judi Lynn]

7. Republican "foreign aid" is actually foreign bribes, foreign subversion.nt

[jody]

8. Agree.

:thumbsup:

[Crunchy Frog]

9. I wonder which foreign governments are contributing money

for the support of pro-democracy forces in the United States? We could probably use that sort of help more than Venezuela, seeing that they actually have a legitimately elected President and we don't.

Glad to see that Venezuela wants to maintain its sovereignty. Not surprised that our regime is pissy over it.

[Peace Patriot]

10. The Bush Cartel sends "U.S. foreign aid" (our taxes) to support the rich

oil elite in Venezuela so they can try to destroy a truly elected president, while Chavez offers cheaper gas, medical help and hurricane assistance (from the portion of Venezuela's oil profits that are dedicated to helping the poor) to the American victims of the Bush Cartel--the poor, the sick, and those whom the Bush Cartel abandoned in disaster.

-----

("...the White House waived the cuts in U.S. foreign aid usually attached to the 'decertification' so that it can continue to support pro-democracy groups in Venezuela that oppose the leftist Chavez.")

-----

Well, here's another contrast between us and democratic Venezuela: They have open source code in their electronic voting system, that is, the electronic voting system vendors are required to disclose the programming they use for tabulating votes, whereas, in the U.S., two companies with close ties to the Bush Cartel "count" all our votes with "trade secret," proprietary programming code--code so secret that not even our elected secretaries of state are permitted to review it.

How this happened was through a $4 billion appropriation by Bush's and Tom Delay's Congress to "reform" the election system, after the scandal of Florida 2000, which was used to entice the states to purchase "lemon" voting systems from Bush's buddies at Diebold and ES&S electronics companies (and a few others). These are extremely insecure, unreliable, shoddy and, above all, hackable electronic voting systems--with Bush's buddies insisting that the innards of their machines remain a "trade secret" and that their machines do not need a "paper trail" or any means of recounting or auditing the "results" that they produce, and furthermore requiring the states to sign on to permanent and highly expensive "servicing" contracts, whereby private company personnel, who are in the pay of major Bush and far rightwing funders, have continual easy access to the machines, and are the only ones who know how to keep the machines running.

Who would be so insane as to buy such voting systems? Republican election officials who don't believe in democracy, and Democratic election officials who are corrupt (i.e., are being lavishly lobbied*, are getting future job offers, etc.).

Our entire political system--and all of our political representatives--are now beholden to these election officials and to the choices that Diebold and ES&S make for our political system when they tweak their SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code inside their machines (easy as pie--one hacker, a couple of minutes).

This is why Venezuela has a president and a legislature that are representing the majority of Venezuelans--including the vast poor population which has never before been represented in government--while we have criminals, mass murderers, massive thieves and congenital liars ruling over US (and NOT representing us).

If we want to be rid of the extremely corrupt and diabolical "drug war" here (and as perpetrated by the U.S. against others), and if we want to be rid of Bush's war on Iraq, Iran and Syria, and of rule by the rich and murderous, and of DLC Democrats and War Democrats, we MUST try to repair our election system in the only venues where it is still possible--the state and local jurisdictions that still retain the power over election systems, and where ordinary people still have some influence. We need...

Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)

or, at the least...

Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% automatic recount, very strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code! (...jeez!).


---------

Throw these election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! (--or a Louisiana levee might serve!)

---------

In addition to the absurdly non-transparent, unverifiable election system that was put in place for the 2004 election, there is a mountain of evidence that Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae produced the wrong result for president (and probably for other offices as well).

To hide this from the American people, the TV networks, acting in concert, FALSIFIED their own exit polls, which showed a Kerry win, late on election day. They CHANGED their exit poll data (Kerry won) to fit the "official result" derived from Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won), thus denying the American people major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation.

It was the worst journalistic crime that has ever been committed, bar none. They not only kept the Bush Cartel in power, they decimated the huge grass roots antiwar movement that had rallied to oust them from the White House (--and that had produced a blowout success in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40, Dem/Repub). This grass roots movement was a true reflection of the majority of Americans on the war and on other Cartel policy.

58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war before the invasion--Feb '03, across the board in all polls--a figure that dipped only once, in the few weeks of the invasion, with U.S. troops at max risk, then went right back up to nearly 60%, where it stayed throughout the election. It's over 70% today. Furthermore, the issue polls over the last year show huge disapproval of every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 70% range. (You name it. The Iraq war. Torture policy. Social Security. The deficit. Women's rights. ALMOST NOBODY SUPPORTS BUSH ON ANY ISSUE!)

We cannot do anything about this LACK OF REPRESENTATION, or about the war profiteering corporate news monopolies who DOCTORED the exit polls, until we have restored our right to vote.

---------------------------------------

* Re: the bipartisan corruption of our election officials. See Amaryllis' post on the hogfest at the Beverly Hilton this August--a week of fun, sun and high-end shopping for election officials from around the country, sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. It will burn your eyeballs!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[jody]

12. Do you have a source for Venezuela's open source code? n/t

[loudsue]

27. Thank you, PeacePatriot! You've got that right!

Bush will still be glad to spend $$ in Venezuela to try to get Diebold & friends into the voting process "to promote democracy"... American style...which means gerrymandered votes. The boosh regime/mafia will do everything, EVERYTHING, they can to undermine the democratically elected Chavez. Same thing they've done here.

:kick:

[0007]

11. Why would Venezuela want a productive relationship with

a dictator that has tried to kill its democratic president?

[Say_What]

14. Venezuela says U.S no longer an ally in war on terror

While the US continues to harbor one of the most dangerous self-admitted terrorists in the world, Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela for the bombing of a Cubana airliner, the Bushistas have no intention of honoring Venezuela's request for Posada's extradition.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/9/1/232838/8666

[Judi Lynn]

15. So the judge has already decided he won't allow extradition to Venezuela.

You are the one to break the news here, with this article.

It introduces a BIG factor a lot of people haven't even considered. From the article:

First, Posada simply knows too much about the United States’ past as a facilitator and instigator of terrorism in Central and South America. It is inconceivable that the Bush Administration would give a foreign sovereign the opportunity to extract from Posada damning information about the United States. The hatred of Fidel Castro and of Leftists in Central and South America is an important feature of the Bush family dynasty, and the intersections between that dynasty and Posada are numerous and tantalizing, if not telling. No Bush clan member could ever survive the shame of being the one who decided to send such an ally and partner as Posada into the arms of the Dynasty’s enemies. And Posada’s involvement in running the Contra operation for Vice-President George H.W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan would in and of itself provide sufficient reason to keep him out of the clutches of Hugo Chávez.
(snip)

So the sombitch is home free. They'll claim they can't extradite him anywhere, just like Orlando Bosch, and he'll live out his days in Miami, no doubt, among his right-wing Cuban "exile" fans, also the home of right-wing Latin American and Caribbean dictators and henchmen hiding from justice at home.

[Say_What]

17. and the connection to the BFEE helps....

another great little snippet from the article:

...Finally, and most important, there are hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles and their descendants living in Florida, a key state in any presidential election. These Cubans have overwhelmingly voted for conservative, anti-Leftist candidates who promise to take a hard line with the Castro regime. If President George W. Bush were to send Posada back to Venezuela, it is possible that President Chávez would turn Posada over to Castro. This would be an outrage of astonishing proportions to the Cuban community in Florida and would severely damage the Republican Party, the party of the Bush Dynasty. The consequences would be even closer to the hearth if Jeb Bush, George W. Bush’s brother and current governor of Florida, were a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President. Jeb Bush, who successfully lobbied his father to free Posada’s fellow terrorist, Orlando Bosch, in 1990, would see his political future fatally crippled if his brother caused Posada to end up in Castro’s hands. All of the years the Bush’s had spent ingratiating themselves to the exile Cuban community would be lost.

[Mika]

25. Pure theater. (With bodybags.. er.. transfer tubes)

The hatred of Fidel Castro and of Leftists in Central and South America is an important feature of the Bush family dynasty..



Pure theater. The bushistas NEED boogeymen to garner support from their lunatic fringe financiers (as well as a reason to finance their bushcrimefamily contractors on our tax $$). Case in point: Castro. Without Castro just who would the intransigent rightwingnuts run against? What platform would they use for fundraising? (This, of course, plays both ways.. the anti Cuba AND the pro Cuba trade foundations pour money into campaigns on both sides of the issue.. what remains is policy in cement shoes specifically for the purpose of fundraising and contracting - AKA: corruption.) 'Murican politics/policy is mired in love/hate relationships for $$.




Boogeymen agin' Bush

[Say_What]

28. Castro this/Chavez that... Castro this/Chavez that... ;-)

You're right. The anti-Castro/anti-Chavez industry is BIG business in South Florida.

This might be a useful website....

http://www.namebase.org/main3/Luis-Posada-carriles.html

[rocktivity]

16. Well, what does Bush need with Venezuela

when he can get his drugs from Afghanistan?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Andrushka]

19. Indeed

And here he is after that famous bathroom break submitting his sample to UN officials (He was later disqualified from the event after he proved positive for various barbiturates and stimulants)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

31. You know. that's really inmature.

He's a cokehead not a smack-head. Therefore Latin America......

[Minstrel Boy]

20. Even DEA agents say the DEA in Venezuela is corrupt.

Some comments pertaining to Venezuela from DEA employees who had originally posted on DEAWatch, which I quoted a couple of months ago in this post on my blog, about the murder of DEA Special Agent Timothy Markey in Honduras:

"As I recall Timothy had a running gun battle with HQ over his getting the boot out of Venezuela some years back. Constantine reportedly forced Tim to see a shrink because Tim filed complaints about some of the others in the DEA office were crooks. I would take a close look at all those Tim worked with in Venezuela. If any can be found to have lots of money and/or property they can't account for that would mean Tim was right and one or more of them might have arranged Tim's murder to look like a street robbery."

"There is a major international incident now going on in Venezuela involving DEA. The top people in Venezuela 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 interviewed by certain members of Congress to find out what Markey could tell them about the shenanigans in the Venezuela 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."

"Be careful what you learn about when working with State and CIA. If you learn too much, and try making a public report, you will be marked for death. If you want to report, do it anonymously on DEA Watch."

[Kralizec]

24. scary... n/t

[Occulus]

26. Oh, I think it's fairly safe to say that the DEA

is quickly looking to me to be the single largest international drug runner... it would make perfect sense; after all, that's a lot of cash, and can be fairly easily turned around to try to topple an oil-rich government or two.

The drug war will never end because it's being used by people with an agenda as a source of funding for policy decisions. TRANSLATION: Not all drugs are as inherently "bad" as we all have been led to believe, and do not necessarily carry a need for regulation.

[Frances]

21. Bush's America is much weaker than Clinton's America was

<<World leaders had been asked to speak for five minutes, and when Chavez kept talking, the presiding diplomat passed him a note that his time was up. Chavez threw it on the floor and said if Bush could speak for 20 minutes at Wednesday's opening session, so could he.>>

[RedCloud]

23. But Venezuela wants to get our dope out of the White House! n/t

[genius]

29. If there's a war on drugs, why isn't Bush in jail. We're locking up the

black users. Most blacks in jail are there for what Bush does on a regular basis.

[TroubleMan]

33. In other words, Venezuela won't help the CIA and DEA traffic drugs anymore

That means Venezuela is actually doing something to stop drug trafficking.