Argentina summons US ambassador to talk about CIA

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

February 26, 2009 - 3:01 p.m.
Argentina summons US ambassador to talk about CIA

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's foreign minister says President Cristina Fernandez has summoned the U.S. to discuss the CIA director's comments about how the world economic crisis could destabilize some Latin American governments.

Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said Thursday that the president wants to talk to Ambassador Earl Anthony "and we will demand explanations."

On Wednesday, CIA Director Leon Panetta listed Argentina, Venezuela and Ecuador as countries in dire economic straits that could be destabilized by the worldwide economic crisis.

Taiana called Panetta's comments "regrettable."



Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Latin_America_And_Caribbean/LT_Argentina_US_CIA.html

[rabs]

1. Embassy stumbling trying to explain what Panetta meant

and it is NOT making much sense. Obama admin. goofs again with respect to Latam. Result of having left-over Rumsfeldian reptiles still in policy-making positions to advise Obama, Hillary and Panetta.

From Clarin, one of the leading newspapers in Argentina.

Embassy spokesperson says CIA report "did not have the intention of expressing U.S. concern about Argentina.

An embassy source explained that in reality (the report) wanted to allude to "a comment made by a foreign source" and "did not have the intention of expressing U.S. concern with respect to Argentina."

La embajada estadounidense salió a aclarar esta tarde que la advertencia sobre los alcances de la crisis en Argentina, incluido en un informe de la CIA, "no tenía la intención de transmitir preocupación de los Estados Unidos sobre la Argentina".

Según el informe difundido hoy, agentes de inteligencia argentina informaron a la CIA que, en América latina, la crisis internacional se extendió "particularmente" a la Argentina.

Una fuente de la embajada precisó que en realidad se quería aludir a "un comentario hecho por una fuente extranjera", y que "no tenía intención de transmitir preocupación de Estados Unidos con respecto a la Argentina".


http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/02/26/um/m-01866618.htm

[Judi Lynn]

3. That's GOT to be the explanation: leftover fascists from the Bush administration.

It does sound as if they are stumbling around to cover themselves, doesn't it?

It was such a clumsy effort, too. They must have not expected Argentina to dare to challenge them. Hope it gets the President's attention.

Here's a report from the Dow Jones "news" service:

Argentina Demands US Explain CIA Chief's 'Baseless' Comments


BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- In the first test to relations between Argentina and the new Obama administration, Argentina's Foreign Minister has summoned the U.S. ambassador to Argentina to explain comments made this week by CIA chief Leon Panetta regarding the stability of Argentina.

This is an "unacceptable interference in our domestic affairs, particularly from an agency that has a sad history of interference in countries of the region," Argentina's Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said during a press conference Thursday.

Taiana asked U.S. ambassador Anthony Wayne to a meeting Friday to discuss the Panetta's comments.

At a press conference this week, the CIA chief said that Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela are in dire economic straits and could be destabilized by the worldwide economic crisis.

Taiana called the comments "irresponsible and baseless," in addition to lacking the respect due between the two countries.

Relations between Argentina and Washington were tense during the Bush administration, particularly after Argentina's former president Nestor Kirchner allowed Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez to hold a large anti-Bush rally in a Buenos Aires soccer stadium in 2007 as part of a shadow tour in which Chavez tracked Bush's visit to the region.

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/argentina-demands-us-explain-cia-chief-s-baseless-comments-624557

[Peace Patriot]

2. Whoa! I was wondering if Panetta WANTS them to fail, and was speaking from

a CIA narrative to MAKE them fail. And I was thinking of Stanford bank, which the Chavez government has linked to the CIA. Almost simultaneous with these remarks by Panetta, there was a run on the Stanford bank in Caracas. Was that planned? Luckily, the Chavez government got on it right away, and shut it down. And how they got on it so quickly may have been because they raided that bank's international offices back in late October, looking for the illicit money that was being shoveled through the Stanford banking system to the Venezuelan fascists to defeat the term limits referendum (against the law in Venezuela to accept foreign money for political campaigns) and for unknown other purposes (--likely destabilization efforts, coups, training young 'brownshirts,' etc.).

So-o--o, what's with Mr. Panetta, whom I believe to be "old school" CIA, whose job is to clean up the godawful messes of the Bushwhack-CIA? Does he share the Bushwhack-CIA's goals in South America, of installing governments that throw leftists out of airplanes, slaughter union leaders and peasant farmers, and don't want to share even a tiny little bit of their wealth, not one peso, with the poor? Or what?

I love Cristina Fernandez! What a woman! She doesn't waste a minute, when the U.S. picks on Argentina. She put up a similar grand stink about the Bushbot U.S. attorney in Miami and that ridiculous "suitcase full of money" caper (trying to drag Chavez and Fernandez through the mud). At the Rio Group, I have never seen such a cold-shoulder as she gave Alvaro Uribe, after the U.S./Colombia bombed Ecuador. Her look could freeze the Devil in his tracks. I actually feel pity for Mr. U.S. Ambassador Earl Anthony.

[Judi Lynn]

4. She also was very serious during the meeting among Latin American leaders

following Uribe's invasion of Ecuador. She gave him a look which probably caused him to loose bladder control. You recall he was WAY out of his depths among such serious people, and babbled like a complete idiot, while the rest of the room stared daggers at him, for the most part, along with Christina Fernandez.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Is it just me, or is it reality that the USA wants to control EVERY state in the World??

.
.
.

If President Obama wants to make the USA a respectable nation

he has to dispel this image

because that's what other countries perceive . .

HELPING other nations is one thing

"Controlling" them is another . .

We notice . . .

[IndianaGreen]

6. The reality is that the US can no longer control countries like we used to

The American empire is dead, praise be to the gods.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. BUT the USA is still killing millions TRYING to be the Empire

.
.
.

is there a quick fix to that ??

or to we just have to watch the slaughter sorta "wind down" to an acceptable level ??

[Chulanowa]

10. Thankfully, in our current state, it's just fantasy

The Bush years actually had one positive outcome - The dissolution of the US as a world superpower. Other nations are finding their voices, straightening hteir spines, and putting us to task. Iraq and Afghanistan pulled our military thin and divided the country, policies alienated the rest of the world and tipped the economy to the abyss...

The empire is over, and it's the best thing for the US.

[rabs]

8. Connecting the dots; Panetta goofs up BIG TIME

U.S. ambassador is getting diplomatic reamed by the Argentina government in Buenos Aires as I write this.

Argentine media has published how CIA boss Panetta screwed up and Thomas Shannon, the Western Hemisphere honcho at the State Department today said that what Panetta had uttered about Argentina "did not reflect the opinion of the U.S. government." That surely had to be cleared with Hillary, who must be incensed with Panetta. And highly embarrassing for Panette.

Shannon said Panetta had merely repeated "what a person from Latin America had told him." Other Argentine media yesterday described that person as "an intelligence source" with whom Panetta had met in recent days.

No one in the U.S. goverment or media (that I know of) has identified that person, but it is obvious. Panetta met with Defense Minister Santos of Colombia this week. Colombia is not on good terms with Venezuela, Ecuador and to a lesser degree, Argentina. Plus, you will notice that Colombia, the worst human rights violator in Latin America, was NOT on Panetta's list.

So Panetta fell like a sucker to what Santos said. Santos is a likely presidential candidate to replace Bush-buddy Uribe. Santos went to Washington this week to make his first contacts with the Obama admin., which really pissed Uribe back in Colombia. Look for Santos to resign in the next few weeks. Santos was also in Washington asking for another half-bbbillion dollars for Plan Colombia.

It also has filtered out that Santos has begun negotations with the Pentagon (Gates) for U.S. military missions to be conducted out of an airbase in Cali (southern Colombia) when the U.S.-leased base in Manta, Ecuador is closed this year by order of Ecuadoran President Correa.



For Spanish readers, remarks by Shannon:

http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=136699&id=278567&dis=1&sec=1

[Judi Lynn]

11. Santos is probably driving Uribe wild, as it appears his ambition has gotten the best of him,

and he is making an all out effort for himself, apparently, rather than for his President.

He was just here last year, when this photo was taken. It seems he's been here as often as Uribe has:



Here's a short article from the international edition of La Semana:

Colombian Ministers of Defense and Foreign Relations meet with Clinton
Headline
February 26, 2009

Jaime Bermúdez, Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Relations, and Juan Manuel Santos, Minister of Defense, met with important members of Barack Obama’s government in the US to discuss vital bilateral topics such as the Free Trade Agreement and the fight against drugs.

After meeting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bermúdez said that, although Obama’s team has got bigger priorities (like facing the financial crisis), both Colombia and the US will work together to have the FTA ratified.

Jim Jones, National Security Adviser, also met the two Colombian officials who are on tour this week in the US. According to Santos, Jones is “very interested in continuing with Plan Colombia and with the military cooperation between both countries.

Leon Panetta, new head of the CIA, and congressmen John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and Roy Blunt also discussed those important issues with Bermúdez and Santos.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-headlines/colombian-ministers-of-defense-and-foreign-relations-meet-with-clinton/121138.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~
So glad to read your comments. I'm certain you are right on target with this. Looks as if Panetta's getting schooled in a crash course on foreign policy, for sure.

[Peace Patriot]

13. Thank you, Rabs! Great comment! I think you've nailed it. I've been puzzling about this

all week. What can Panetta have been thinking! And--what did it portend? Was this a Bushwhack CIA scenario he was carrying out--to induce meltdowns in these stable countries, say, connected to the CIA's Stanford bank run in Caracas?

But Santos explains it. That rat bastard! Oh, Lordy, he is a menace. He is in the Rumsfeld mold--arrogant, ruthless, cold-blooded, sarcastic. I figured he has ambitions to run Colombia. It will be even more of a military dictatorship if he does. That is bad news. That means that Rumsfeld's private war plan is still alive. I have been fearing this--that with the billions stolen from us, and the private armies created at our expense, and someone like Santos in charge--Rumsfeld & co. can circumvent Obama foreign policy, and wreak havoc in South America.

And I'm so glad Cristina Fernandez is fighting back. She's something, when she gets her dander up.

[The abyss]

9. Wow, nice analysis!

Brought in and commented upon by some of the best posting in DU. Judie Lynn, Peace Patriot, Indiana & rabs.

I read the stuff you guys find and the analysis you all provide – you say it all!

[roody]

12. I'm glad that the Obama administration has been outed

for stupidity about Latin America. Now they can correct it.

[rabs]

14. CIA director: "I apologize."

Never thought a CIA director would eat crow quite like this. Suspect Leon Panetta came under heavy pressure from Hillary and possibly Obama after Panetta's major gaff.

Panetta has apologized to President Cristina Fernandez and to Argentina in general for doubting Argentina's financial stability in the face of the global economic crisis.

Panetta called Argentine Ambassador Hector Timerman in Washington on Friday to say he (Panetta) had committed an error and that his remarks "were not his opinion, nor the CIA's nor the government's of the United States."

Panetta told Timerman that he was "very hurt" and "had committed an error in saying something in which he (Panetta) himself did not believe."

Panetta told Timerman he had made his remarks based "on what someone had told him this week." (That would have been Colombian Defense Minister Santos, who was on an official visit to Washington and met with Panetta on Tuesday.)

Now will have to wait to see if Panetta apologizes to Venezuela and Ecuador for lumping those two countries in with Argentina.

More in Spanish from the official government news agency:

http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=136753&id=278682&dis=1&sec=1

and from Argentina's leading newspaper:

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/02/28/um/m-01867849.htm