Columbia to Chavez: 'Spy drones' may have been Santa's sleigh'

[depakid]

Source: ABC

Colombia has dismissed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's claims that drones flying from Colombia are spying on him, with a senior official saying Venezuelan troops instead may have seen "Father Christmas's sleigh". Mr Chavez, a staunch critic of the United States, said on Sunday the United States was spying on his government with unmanned drones that fly from Colombia as well as the islands off Venezuelan's Caribbean coast.

The Venezuelan President called the incursions by the unmanned planes "acts of war" and ordered his air force to shoot them down if they are seen again. "Colombia does not have those capabilities he describes," Defence Minister Gabriel Silva said.

"Perhaps the Venezuelan troops confused Father Christmas's sleigh with a spy plane."

Colombia, a close US ally, and OPEC-member Venezuela are locked in a dispute that is hurting bilateral trade ties and raising concerns about possible violence between the Andean neighbours. The dispute intensified over a Colombian agreement to allow US troops more access to its military bases to bolster cooperation against drug traffickers and guerrillas fighting Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/22/2778324.htm?section=justin

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Aw crap.... if they start shooting them may get a load of it

[Downwinder]

2. Maybe they were FARC drones.

Drones are pretty low tech, Just a model airplane, with an internet capable cell phone controller.

[BunkerHill24]

3. "Perhaps the Venezuelan troops confused Father Christmas's sleigh with a spy plane."

A Pentagon spokesman added: "Oh, Yeah, we acknowledge that we like a typical run-of-the-mill hypocrites".

[bitchkitty]

4. Fascist humor. Stop, Colombia, you're killing me. n/t

[Libertas1776]

5. ...you serious about that, clark?

[RedCloud]

6. Remember when "we" lit up Baghdad like a Christmas tree?

Such playful analogies to disguise reality.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Maybe it was Colombia's dweeb US puppet/ paramilitary connected President Uribe

flying over.

http://www.bnamericas.com.nyud.net:8090/ten/images/alvaroUribe.gif

[nyy1998]

8. Hilarious

Even if Silva might be wrong, I just love this response.

[Wilms]

11. rofl

"Even if Silva might be wrong"???

There is NO Santa. Sorry to have to be the one to break it to ya.

[nyy1998]

29. Lol, that's not what I meant!

I meant Silva's implication that there are no drones going into Venezuela.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

50. it's funny as hell...

let's HO HO HO-out some drones to Columbia... We western infidels are nothing but a bunch of HOs

[pitchforksandtorches]

9. No way Columbo, Jesus done shot Santa Clause!

n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. The best way to undercut machismo is humorous ridicule. It works on the personal and international...

level!

[AlphaCentauri]

16. Limbaugh does it every day n/t

[ronnie624]

19. I didn't think it was all that creative, especially given the time of the year.

Also, truly effective humor will have a foundation in reality, so as to identify with as wide an audience as possible.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

30. You mean Santa Claus/Father Christmas is not real?

Seriously, reducto absurdum is the classic way to respond to bombastic statements. CHavez, Limpball, or any other. Its one of the better forms of mockery

[ChangoLoa]

32. What do you mean?! He's the greatest TV host in the planet!1! nt.

[ronnie624]

35. I was referring to the pretense by the Colombian government,

that because Colombia does not possess drone technology, they couldn't possibly be based there, flying covert surveillance missions against Venezuela. In fact, the probability is very high that is exactly what is happening, hence the reference to reality.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

36. Flying over Venezuelan territory is not really needed and given the bombastic nature

of the claim, I am somewhat skeptical. I will wait to see what actually turns up or gets shot down with the new SAMs Chavez bought.

I still think the Father Christmas reply was quite funny

[ronnie624]

39. Ever is skepticism a wise approach. n/t

[Sezu]

38. laughing at Chavez is always fun!!!! n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

41. Part of it is his machismo and bombastic style

While I have been told repeated by colleagues it is the norm for Latin America, I like many find it funny. Sort of a Latin America Baghdad Bob.

[chollybocker]

12. Has anyone seen Balloon Boy lately?

Just saying...

[Rage for Order]

13. That's some funny shit right there

I don't care who you are



:rofl:

[Goldstein1984]

14. Given the U.S. alliance with Columbia...

And our country's long and well-documented history of interference in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, it's sort of irrelevant whether Columbia has drone technology, since we do.

With the U.S. spending as much on "defense" as the rest of the world combined, I think I understand what Chavez is worried about.

Venezuela has a lot of oil, and, in spite of our enormous investment in "stabilizing" Iraq, not one American oil country has secured a contract to produce oil there.

[polly7]

22. Hunt Oil

Hunt Oil Company
From SourceWatch
Jump to: navigation, search
The privately-held Hunt Oil Company—"one of the big money Texas donors behind the Bush family political empire"<1>—and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced September 8, 2007, that "they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.

"A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed."<2>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hunt_Oil_Company

Some of these oildfields had been shut down by Hussein when fighting the Kurds in the north.

Hunt Oil was also the first U.S. company operating in Yemen in 1984.

[Goldstein1984]

23. I stand corrected, though my world view is reinforced.

Not one of the "majors," but significant.

[polly7]

24. I don't think it was well known at the time.

Not widely reported on .... maybe due to the Bush connection. "Hunt is heir to Hunt Oil and Chairman. A close friend of George W. Bush, Hunt is one of the first to benefit from the Iraqi Oil deals made in the war torn country."
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=6880&name=Ray-Lee-Hunt

[Goldstein1984]

25. Good resource. Thanks for the link!

[polly7]

28. yvw:) nt.

[AlphaCentauri]

15. HO HO HO HO, who would think Columbian official would be ask for permission

to fly drones over their territory if they are the lest trust army in latin america

[ronnie624]

17. "Colombia does not have those capabilities he describes," Defence Minister Gabriel Silva said.

I'll bet we all know who does, though. A certain somebody who has access to Colombian airbases, perhaps? I don't want to mention any names, but their initials are...

















USA.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. You presume that Chavez is speaking the truth

And he may be...but there is no need for US drones to violate airspace. Going to have to wait and see.

[David__77]

18. "Fox News" ran this on their ticker (saw it at the gym).

I thought "how is that news?" The proper headline would be, "Colombia denies Venezuelan accusation of drone airspace violation." My newscast would be boring to some, but very accurate.

[rabs]

20. Cartoon from Colombia

Note the little angel in the back of the sleigh, being driven by Uribito, with defense minister silva napping and gen, padilla, commander of the armed forces, in the back.





I heard from a Colombian friend tonight that the defense minister, silva, is catching all kinds of hell in Colombia for making light of the Vene./Col. tensions, which are very real.

[WriteDown]

21. Hilarious!

As David_77 said in another thread, if Chavez wants to be taken seriously then shoot it down and then talk. Show the evidence or people may think its all bluster.

[fascisthunter]

26. Columbia's government=whores to the US right wing

they should be proud... lol

[polly7]

34. Huh???

Chavez has worked to reverse the corruption, poverty, illiteracy of previous decades of truly fascist govt's using his oil. How is that in any way comparable to the U.S. right wing, who would seem to me ..... completely the opposite?

[ChangoLoa]

37. You have a great knowledge on Colombia and Venezuela! nt.

[polly7]

40. Well, not nearly as much as I'd like to, but there are many resources

on the internet that provide good histories on Venezuela's previous govt corruption and Chavez's social endeavors. But ty! (Unless that was sarcasm, I can never tell on here : - ).

[ChangoLoa]

44. Sorry for the sarcasm, polly

You answered a comment about Colombia thinking it was about Venezuela.

Also, I confess that, IMHO, your previous post was partially wrong, partially right. On monetary poverty, I agree. On corruption, I don't see Venezuela has changed, it has always been a very corrupted country. On social endeavors, yes and no: schooling expanded considerably more than before, local dispensaries in the slums do provide for basic healthcare (even if half of them were abandoned, according to Chavez) and are starting to provide more sophisticated services, which is very important. On the other hand, literacy rate is growing at the previous rhythm, not faster (it increased from 93% to 96% in 11 years), the state hospitals are in crisis (Chavez called a "state of emergency" for the traditional health system a month ago) and the amount of social housing per year that has been built in the last 11 years is limited compared to previous administrations. Concerning the "decades of truly fascist govts", I don't agree at all. Things are grey. From 1958 to 1989, Venezuela was the most progressive country in Latin America, excepting Allende's half term. Free healthcare and free education through college date back to that period. Almost every state university and public hospital in the country was built during the 60's-70's, by the social democratic party. That's when literacy rate and life expectancy took off. In 1977, the poverty rate was only 25%. When almost all South America was operated by the right-wing anti-communist dictatorships, Venezuelan democracy was the main destination in the region for persecuted progressives. In 1989, the state-oriented protectionist social model was dismantled by the IMF reform, after Carlos Andrés Pérez was elected. This was the breaking point. Deep economical, political and social crisis followed. The answer of the government to the massive feb 89 riots was "fascist"-repressive and 1,000-2,500 people were shot in the streets of Caracas by the army. From that date to 2003, the country was submerged in instability and crisis, with a very high monetary poverty rate. From 2003 to 2008, we assisted to another take off. Let's see how we handle the current potential crisis.

[polly7]

47. Whoa, thanks .......... yes I did!

Sorry, just reading too fast.

Also, I don't completely agree with your conclusions on Venezuela's reformation. But, you do seem to know a lot about it. Impressive.

[jakefrep]

27. That has about as much chance of being true as anything coming from that sleazebag Chavez.

[47of74]

33. Santa's probably up on all the latest technology for the sleigh

And probably his sleigh has all sorts of countermeasures and highly trained reindeer to help him in situations like this.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

42. Then how did Chavez detect this gross violation of his sovereignty?

Stealth coatings and ECM should have made the sleigh undetectable.

[47of74]

52. Two words...

...reindeer droppings.

[tammywammy]

43. LOL

Very funny

[Ter]

45. Hahaha, War On Christmas

From Chavez! Guess the commies really do hate Christmas!

:D

[Judi Lynn]

46. Colombia: ex-para names US banana companies in murder of trade unionists

Colombia: ex-para names US banana companies in murder of trade unionists
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 17:20.

Dole Food Company and Chiquita Brands International paid a Colombian terrorist organization to perform protection services that included murdering trade unionists, demobilized paramilitary José Gregorio Mongones said in an affidavit released Dec. 6. The testimony is the centerpiece of two civil lawsuits against Chiquita and Dole filed by family members of victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia. Both lawsuits accuse the companies of funding the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the country's largest paramilitary organization, formally demobilized in 2006.

Mongones, better known by his alias "Carlos Tijeras," assumed the command of the AUC's William Rivas Front in the banana-growing department of Magdalena in March 2002, inheriting a protection arrangement in which Chiquita paid the group "three cents on the dollar per box of bananas shipped from Colombia," according to his affidavit. Dole paid the paramilitaries a tax of 70,000 pesos per hectare of land in the Front's area of control in the Department of Magdalena, the statement said. In return, Mongones said, the William Rivas Front protected the companies from threats posed by groups including leftist guerrillas, hostile unions, and common thieves.

Mongones names 12 people whose assassinations he says he ordered after Dole informed him that they belonged to or sympathized with leftist guerrillas. In all, he has confessed to ordering more than 500 murders. His confessions have come since the Peace, Justice, and Reparation Process began in 2006, under the terms of which paramilitaries receive a maximum of eight years in prison if they confess to their crimes.

Chiquita pled guilty in 2007 to paying over $1.7 million to the AUC, a State Department-designated terrorist group since 2001, and the company paid $25 million in fines. Heirs to the victims of paramilitary violence filed a civil suit against Chiquita shortly thereafter. Current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended Chiquita in the Justice Department suit that ended in 2007.

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8096

[BreweryYardRat]

49. Yeesh. I think I'll buy a brand other than Chiquita next time I need bananas.

Assuming the stores have anything else in stock...

[old mark]

48. Probably Russian missile launches. nt

[boppers]

51. Santa's conspiring against Chavez, too? Wow.

Poor guy. Even Father Christmas is trying to inflict its evil ways upon him.