Wash Journal, amazingly, has 'unbiased' commentator discussing Chavez

[Gabi Hayes]

unbiased, of course, if you believe in hearing both sides of the Chavez story

Mark Weisbrot, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, discusses the widespread misinformation being disseminated in our own media. well worth watching. one might want to read the other current Chavez thread here, which has many insightful posts contained therein

a snip from Weisbrot's TPM blog, in which he takes apart stories from mainstream sources, including this segment analyzing disinfo from Foreign Affairs Magazine

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/28/91911/617

"the poor do not support him en masse." This can be refuted by any recent poll, as well as by opposition pollsters themselves. Chavez' recent approval ratings have ranged from 65 to 77 percent. Where does this support come from? The upper classes? Perhaps this is another arithmetic problem. Also, a look at the results of the August 2004 referendum, which Chavez won by 59-41 percent, shows one of the most polarized voting patterns in the hemisphere, with poor areas voting overwhelmingly for Chavez and the richer areas voting overwhelmingly against him.

"Chavez has failed to improve any meaningful measure of poverty, education, and equity." As I noted in a prior post, the official poverty rate now stands at 38.5 percent, but that counts only cash income. For example, if the United States were to abolish food stamps and Medicaid, poor people here would be much worse off. Similarly, the subsidized food and free health care now available in Venezuela have significantly increased living standards among the poor. More than 40 percent of the country buys subsidized food, and millions of poor people have access to free health care that was previously unavailable. If these are taken into account, the measured poverty rate would drop well below 30 percent.

The poverty rate when Chavez took office, in the first quarter of 1999, was 42.8 percent. So there is a meaningful measure of poverty reduction, especially if non-cash benefits are taken into account. Also, the government declared in October that 1.48 million Venezuelans have been taught to read as a result of a massive literacy drive that began in 2003. Although there is so far no independent verification of the number, even if it turned out to be significantly overestimated, there is no doubt that a very large number of Venezuelans (total population: 25 million) have learned to read under the program.

"Following the 2004 recall referendum, in which Chavez won 58 percent of the vote, the opposition fell into a coma, shocked not so much by the results as by the ease with which international observers condoned the Electoral Council's flimsy audit of the results." Actually, according to all news reports at the time, they were shocked by the results; they announced that the referendum was stolen, and most of the opposition continues to maintain this position. There was nothing "flimsy" about the audit, and there is no more doubt about the results of this referendum than there is that Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale by a similar margin in 1984. I have explained this in a previous post, and in a paper refuting alleged statistical evidence of fraud, and so will not belabor the point here. Also, the Carter Center and the OAS did not simply "condone" an audit by the Venezuelan Electoral Council but were closely involved in the audit as observers and verified the results.

Corrales' attempt to raise doubts about the referendum result is particularly disturbing in light of recent events in Venezuela. Most of the opposition parties boycotted the Venezuelan Congressional elections three weeks ago, on December 4. "We had a problem with the Venezuelan opposition, which assured us that they would not withdraw from the process if certain conditions were met. These were met and despite this, they withdrew," said Jose Miguel Insulza, head of the OAS, just this week.

The opposition's primary argument for boycotting elections is that they cannot "trust" the electoral process, based on the conspiracy theory, widely held by the opposition in Venezuela, that the recall referendum was stolen. (See http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/2/17334/7970 )


........

another article from Weisbrot's site, from a few years back, making some obvious points, which bear constant repetition


http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot/media%20venezuela.htm

Media Falls Short on Iraq, Venezuela


Last week the New York Times published an 1100-word note "From the Editors" criticizing its own reporting on the build-up to the Iraq war and the early stages of the occupation. On Sunday the newspaper's Public Editor went further, citing "flawed journalism" and stories that "pushed Pentagon assertions so aggressively you could almost sense epaulets sprouting on the shoulders of editors."

This kind of self-criticism is important, because the media played an important role in convincing the American public -- and probably the Congress as well -- that the war was justified. Unfortunately, these kinds of mistakes are not limited to the New York Times -- or to reporting on Iraq.

Venezuela is a case in point. The Bush administration has been pushing for "regime change" in Venezuela for years now, painting a false and exaggerated picture of the reality there. As in the case of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and links to Al-Qaeda, the Administration has gotten a lot of help from the media.

Reporting on Venezuela relies overwhelmingly on opposition sources, many of them about as reliable as Ahmed Chalabi. Although there are any number of scholars and academics -- both Venezuelan and international -- who could offer coherent arguments on the other side, their arguments almost never appear. For balance, we usually get at most a poor person on the street describing why he likes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or a sound bite from Chavez himself denouncing "imperialist intervention."

[Gabi Hayes]

1. current Chavez thread on front page here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3114098&mesg_id=3114098

[Gabi Hayes]

2. hahahah....caller accuses Weisbrot of being a socialist, calls

Venezuela a kleptocracy, after praising Milton Friedman.

too bad Weisbrot didn't go into what the Friedman boys did to Chile, Argentina, etal

[malaise]

3. I'm having a good laugh at the callers n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. A socialist? Is that supposed to be an insult!!!???!!!??? Tee hee!

[tecelote]

4. This sounds similar.

Look at Daniel Ortega's record in Nicaragua last time he was in power.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. you mean while the US government was actively trying to overthrow his?

that time he was in power?

[Gabi Hayes]

6. they move onto nicaragua now, with OTTO REICH as the guest!!!!!

I guarantee you this will be one of the most amazingly mendacious bits of spew you'll ever hear.

how on earth do they let this guy out of his cave to bear his false witness about Central/South America?

wait a minute for a primer on Otto Reich....

[Gabi Hayes]

7. from the National Security Archive

The Bush administration has floated the name of Otto Juan Reich for possible nomination as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs (see Al Kamen, “In the Loop,” The Washington Post, 15 February 2001). Mr. Reich served in the Reagan administration as assistant administrator of the Agency for International Development (AID) from 1981 to 1983, then as the first director of the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean (S/LPD) from 1983 to 1986, and finally as ambassador to Venezuela.
Mr. Reich’s tenure at the Office of Public Diplomacy generated major controversy during the exposure of the Iran-contra scandal and left an extensive document trail, some of the highlights of which are included in this Briefing Book. For example:

* The Comptroller-General of the U.S., a Republican appointee, found that some of the efforts of Mr. Reich’s public diplomacy office were “prohibited, covert propaganda activities,” “beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities….” The same September 30, 1987 letter concluded that Mr. Reich’s office had violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.” The letter also said, “We do not believe, however, that available evidence will support a conclusion that the applicable antilobbying statute has been violated.”

* The General Accounting Office in an October 30, 1987 letter and report found that Mr. Reich’s office “generally did not follow federal regulations governing contractual procedures” in its contracting “with numerous individuals and several companies.” The GAO quoted Mr. Reich as saying “he was generally unfamiliar with the details related to the office’s contracting procedures. Instead he relied on his staff as well as State’s procurement office to ensure that federal regulations were adhered to.”

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/

[Judi Lynn]

25. Do you remember he claimed US print journalists were seeking out whores in Honduras,

during Iran-Contra? He accused one of them of pursuing male prostitutes. More recently, when the Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura, went to Havana with his agricultural contingent in search of contracts for vegetables they could sell to Cuba, and livestock, Otto Reich announced to the U.S. press his conviction he would warn Jesse Ventura NOT to go to Cuba looking for sexual tourism.

Yeah, right, Otto, you pathetic ass.



Reagan/Bush's Little Mr. Propaganda

[Gabi Hayes]

28. no, I missed all of that, but thanks....and thanks for your links amidst all the

Chavez bashing the occurs here daily.

I've given up posting there, mainly because of you and a few others, who are much better informed than I, and know where to find the real facts, as opposed to those vomited forth by the Korporatist Kool Aid drinkers who seem to abound at DU

even my uber corp brother, who works for Caterpillar, and lived in Venezuela for five years, admits the reality of situation there, and while not supporting Chavez, understands at a visceral level the dynamic which exists between the the vast majority of constitution-wielding Venezuelan patriots and the small minority who seek to return to the days of Juan Vicente Gomez and Royal Dutch Shell

[Judi Lynn]

30. That's great to hear,that even though he's a corporatist,he acknowledges the people need someone

who will be the servant of the PEOPLE, and not the racist, exclusionary, violent, ruthless, greedy oligarchy.

I saw in an article yesterday that the reason they're moving so fast is that they have so much to accomplish in ONE generation. They need to get it all done as soon as possible, so they make progress which can't be undone.

[Gabi Hayes]

33. yeah....he's pretty stuck where he is, and has lots of misgivings about it,

but he's too old to quit now

and how ironic is it that Chavez is trying to cement in place a lasting ECONOMIC, as well as political, democracy in his country, as fast as he can, while the exact opposite is happening here, at a MUCH FASTER pace?

can we ever recover, given the sad state of our loyal "opposition?" do they have the will to undo all that's been done to our constitution (just for starters...I don't have the energy to go into EVERY single aspect of the destruction they've caused...it's so enervating...one of the very worst things I see every day: in my grade school, the effects of NCLB are being felt at every turn, in every class, studying for EVERY test --to the exclusion of almost everything else, including RECESS!-- and most likely will continue every after)

[Judi Lynn]

35. Omigosh, you're so right. Never saw the contrast 'til now. As soon as Dubya got to the White House,

he started dismantling ALL the progress made by Bill Clinton in so many areas: it seemed he started with the environmental things, tearing it ALL apart, then onto other things.

Their recent pride and joy has been trying to destroy the big items F.D.R. put in place for Americans as safeguards. They have worked like madmen on taking everything apart, throwing it all away.

They've done more damage than a person would have EVER dreamed possible. It will take ages to build it all back. Hope the Democrats in Washington and in the State Governments will be up to the challenge.

Thanks for pointing this out. Very interesting.

[Gabi Hayes]

38. I hope they try to do SOMETHING, but there is so much that needs fixing,

that, even if they try, it's as daunting as the reconstruction following the Civil War.

I think it's going to get a LOT worse before it gets any better, because of forces beyond our control (can you say China T-Bills, for starters, and that's just the tip of the iceberg)

until we get rid of paid/paying lobbyists and pay for pay campaign financing (course, there's always those darn E-voting machines, waiting for the 08 election theft, after the public's fears have been falsely assuaged by this past round....tinfoil hat, anyone), NOTHING much is going to change, so I'm not holding my breath


everything else is just window dressing

[Judi Lynn]

43. Here's a good overview of the work being undertaken right now:

Venezuela's revolution accelerates

Stuart Munckton
12 January 2007

~snip~
Beyond the panic among corporate circles is the simple fact that the plan to reverse privatisations is nothing more than the legitimate exercising of Venezuela’s right to national sovereignty. In the 1990s, thousands of formerly state-owned firms across Latin America shifted into the hands of multinational corporations — a direct factor in the impoverishment of millions across the continent.

The corporate media have largely ignored the fact that in the expropriations of idle land and firms that have occurred as part of the revolution so far, the former owners have all been fully compensated, as is required under Venezuelan law. Also, the plan to re-nationalise CANTV comes after Chavez threatened the firm with nationalisation last year unless it agreed to the demand of CANTV workers to obey Venezuelan law and raise pension payments to meet the minimum wage. CANTV cannot claim it wasn’t warned.

Also, any moves to ensure that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA gains control over the four Orinoco river belt projects would merely be an extension of the changes last year, when 32 projects were shifted to joint ventures with PDVSA that guaranteed the latter a majority share, as well as moves to increase royalty payments and force oil corporations in Venezuela to pay their taxes. The extra money earned by the Venezuelan state has funded a massive increase in social spending that decreased poverty in one year alone by 10% according to the World Bank.

This has not stopped the corporate media from alleging that the plans amount to a personal grab at power by Chavez. What these claims ignore is the fundamentally democratic nature of the process of change in Venezuela. The presidential elections represented the 11th straight national electoral victory for pro-Chavez forces, and Chavez campaigned in the elections on an explicitly socialist platform. Chavez is doing something that pro-capitalist politicians almost never do — exactly what he promised.
(snip/...)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/694/36058

On edit: adding photo of the Orinoco River, at no extra cost!

[Judi Lynn]

44. It just occurred to me that maybe Reich is trying to compensate for casting such a short shadow

by leaving, instead, an overwhelming stench in the world! You just never know. I'd say he's well on his way!

[leftchick]

8. he was great

It is refreshing to hear someone cut through the US paid propaganda on Venezuela. I will watch the rerun later as I missed the first 15 minutes.


Thank you Gabi!

:hi:

[Gabi Hayes]

9. are you watching Otto Reich?

the guy whose office of public Diplomacy spread stories about nicaragua brining in CHEMICAL/BIO weapons, migs, etc., which were all lies?

the guy who said he was watching NPR...this is quoted....and said they were concerned that they were covering the contra affair from a too-negative angle? the reporter who did much of this coverage was eventually subject to so much pressure that he quit

too bad Robert Parry couldn't be on with this filthy liar

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2446

In totalitarian countries, government propaganda officers wield great power. They're authorized to use the media to stir up state-sanctioned passions and fears through the selective dissemination of information -- sometimes factual, sometimes phony.

If you think the United States has never employed propaganda officers, meet Otto Reich. He may soon be our country's chief diplomat in Latin America if the Bush administration has its way.

In March, Bush announced his intention to nominate Reich as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. If he's officially nominated, it will be interesting to see how journalists handle Reich -- because from 1983 through 1986, it was Reich's job to handle journalists. That's when he commanded the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy, whose main mission was to inflame fears about Nicaragua and its left-wing Sandinista government that had come to power by overthrowing a corrupt, U.S.-supported dictator.

By covertly disseminating intelligence leaks to journalists, Reich and the OPD sought to trump up a Nicaraguan "threat," and to sanctify the U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas fighting Nicaragua's government as "freedom fighters." The propaganda was aimed at influencing Congress to continue to fund the Contras.

Take the scary news that Soviet MiG fighter jets were arriving in Nicaragua. With journalists citing unnamed "intelligence sources," the well-timed story surged through U.S. media on the night of Ronald Reagan's reelection. At NBC, Andrea Mitchell broke into election coverage with the story. The furor spurred a Democratic senator to discuss a possible airstrike against Nicaragua. But the story turned out to be a hoax. Several journalists later acknowledged they'd been handed the story by Reich's office.

[leftchick]

10. um no

I can not stomach the war criminal.

:puke:

[Gabi Hayes]

13. you should have......that fricking little weasel steve looked like he

was going to jump under the table, if you get my drift

if you watch the rerun, force yourself to watch, and count the lies, along with the hilarious ironies, among them his censure of Chavez, Ortega, and other leftists, for being against trade unions and the media!!!!

I need to take a chill pill of some sort, I'm so furious....

[Gabi Hayes]

11. I can't remember being this angry before. he just said THIS:

the cause of problems in latin America is Latin America!

he really said that!

this in response to callers saying that Latin Americans are FED up with having their wealth ripped off by multinational corporations

I've been trying to get in since he got on, but it's busy.

and it's infuriating that they're dissing Weisbrot, without his having a chance to respond

curses to WashJournal for not giving the entire hour to both Weisbrot and Reich together, instead of allowing that liar to come on after him and distort everything he's said

how refreshing it would be to have Reich confronted with his murderous past, and not to have been able to spew all his garbage without refutation

now he's lying about Pinochet keeping the US embassy in the dark about his coup!!!! nice parsing, you dick. if the us embassy was in the dark, it was only the part that didn't have the CIA operatives residing there

this was so disgusting.....

[leftchick]

12. c-span pisses me off more often than not

brian lamb refuses to address the FAIR article showing his RW bias on the show. I think he is a closet neocon.

[Gabi Hayes]

14. no doubt about his conservative bent, and it is interesting that he

refuses to deal with the simple reality of the nature and quantity of his guests

that said, I listened on right wing Friday, and he was amazingly down the middle in his mediating whatever discussion to which I listened, even going so far as questioning some of basic wingnut tenets of some of his more unhinged callers. he was much less passive than he normally presents himself

I wonder if the enormity of the disaster which has befallen the world over the last six years has finally begun to sink in

thanks, btw, for your contributions on the various Chavez threads that pop up

[Gabi Hayes]

16. I urge everybody to email CSPAN WRT Reich's appearance, and

the incredible number of lies he told

take them to task for not mentioning his role in the Office of Public Diplomacy under Reagan, an ILLEGAL operation, btw, which should have been prosecuted

''Reich met with a dozen National Public Radio reporters and editors about their allegedly biased Nicaragua coverage. According to NPR Foreign Affairs correspondent Bill Buzenberg, "Reich bragged that he had made similar visits to other unnamed newspapers and major television networks...Reich said he had gotten others to change some of their reporters in the field." Buzenberg told me in a 1987 interview that he viewed the OPD chief's comments as a "calculated attempt to intimidate." ''

[Gabi Hayes]

17. Robert Parry on the CIA, the State Department, and the office of Public Diplomacy, ca 1980s

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost12.html

The operation's most visible arm was a new office at the State Department called the Office of Public Diplomacy. It was headed by Cuban exile Otto Reich, whose job included selecting "hot buttons" that would anger Americans about the Sandinistas. He also browbeat correspondents who produced stories that conflicted with the administration's "themes." Reich once bragged that his office "did not give the critics of the policy any quarter in the debate."

Another part of the office's job was to plant "white propaganda" in the news media through op-eds secretly financed by the government. In one memo, Jonathan Miller, a senior public diplomacy official, informed White House aide Patrick Buchanan about success placing an anti-Sandinista piece in The Wall Street Journal's friendly pages. "Officially, this office had no role in its preparation," Miller wrote.

Other times, the administration put out "black propaganda," outright falsehoods. In 1983, one such theme was designed to anger American Jews by portraying the Sandinistas as anti-Semitic because much of Nicaragua's small Jewish community fled after the revolution in 1979. However, the U.S. embassy in Managua investigated the charges and "found no verifiable ground on which to accuse the GRN of anti-Semitism," according to a July 28, 1983, cable. But the administration kept the cable secret and pushed the "hot button" anyway.

The administration's public diplomacy also followed up on one idea heard by the P.R. men who met with Casey in August 1983 -- to promote the theme that leftist governments would ship narcotics to the United States. The obstacle to that argument, however, was that the Drug Enforcement Administration knew of no drugs which had transited Nicaragua since the Sandinistas took power.

The reason was simple: it made little sense for traffickers to smuggle drugs through a country with almost no trade with the United States while the CIA was monitoring all planes leaving Nicaraguan air space. The Reagan administration solved that P.R. problem by arranging a "sting" operation overseen by Oliver North and the CIA.

[Gabi Hayes]

18. lefthick wasn't kidding when she called Reich a war criminal

at the VERY least, a conspirator after the fact:

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/features/liar111206.htm

[Gabi Hayes]

19. just for fun....guess who was US ambassador to Venezuela when

serial terrorist Orlando Bosch was released from prison there, after originally being convicted of the first inflight bombing of an airliner?

lots more fun info here

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/inv-archive/March2002.html

[Judi Lynn]

27. Great links on this thread. I've got to save this one for future reference. You're advancing the

truth about this idiot.

Yes, indeedy, he was the man who got things rolling getting Orlando Bosch back into the States after Bosch's mass murder of all those people mid-air on the Cuban airliner.

It was so odd watching him on C-Span during the time they were supposed to be talking about Ortega, as he spewed a few lies about Ortega and dived headlong into more anti-Chavez raving. It was like a race against time to see how many lies he could get into a time limited segment.

One damned STRANGE lie about Ortega was his assertion the way Ortega kept his first term as President was to do a whole lot of killing. Now, ask you, if he did a whole lot of killing, WHY on earth would the people of Nicaragua vote for him ALL OVER AGAIN?

He also tried to pretend that although Ortega won the election, hardly anyone really wanted him as President. Well, HOW THE HELL DID HE WIN, THEN? Sheesh.

Ugly little scum is probably panicking, looking down the road at the prospect of more Democratic control in Congress, and the likelihood of a Democratic President in 2008, and his dawning realization that this may be curtains for him, age-wise, that he's running out of time to get all the lies told that he wants to spew!

Apparently he believes his best bet is to lie as if his life depends on it, hope to confuse ALL the fools in the country who will then rise up and slaughter the Democratic politicians, and he can be back, mumbling and cackling away, under his desk again, in the sub-basement of the State Department, in his cozy little Office of Public Diplomacy.

[Gabi Hayes]

29. ''One damned STRANGE Ortega lie''....you meant Reich, I know...

just so you can change that part, if you want.

yeah, that was even worse than the Powerline jackass that was on earlier...the reason I started the thread

CSPAN does an unimaginably grave disservice to the public dialogue by allowing these unreconstructed propagandists pour out their bile unalloyed.

is little Stevie that ignorant or that in the bag? I know most of their hosts rarely challenge anything said by the guests, but when they do, I swear it's almost always to contradict something said by guests on the left. that's my biased interpretation of things, but nobody can deny the heavy tilt toward wingnut guests, as has been mentioned earlier, WRT the FAIR study.

[Judi Lynn]

32. I tried to rearrange the words so it was clearer. Holy smokes!

Sometimes the words fly out so much faster than is prudent!

I'm afraid little Stevie's a lost cause. I have tried to hold out hope for the hosts, as they usually seem very likeable, and mild, but you may have noticed it almost looked as if he was nudging Reich a time or two, by reminding him of some MORE lies which have been going around he could repeat.

Nice work, Stevie! What a shame.

It was a real crime to bring that grubby little creep on last, so he could launch an attack on Weisbrot the moment he got there, and try to destroy his comments. I hope that the viewers are starting to watch these people more closely these days, after so much crap from the right wing.

If they ONLY would start doing their homework, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to fool them. Really gets you wild, doesn't it?
Public ignorance is all the insurance in the world the right-wing needs. They DEPEND upon it. The dumber, the better.

Hell, go shopping. WhatEVER you do, stay AWAY from the libraries!

Signed,
The Republican Party

[leftchick]

39. thanks Gabi

great links here! This thread is a keeper and a good reminder that the US has always behaved as a rogue nation towards other countries.

[Gabi Hayes]

40. really...except for WWII, what do we have to show for american interventionism?

I know, one can make the case for Korea, but if the true diplomatic history of that is spread, it becomes obvious that there never was a need for that 'police action.'

NK's invasion could have been forestalled

now, let's talk about those interventions, just in the last 100 years, and not all foreign:

http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm

[Peace Patriot]

20. Venezuela handcounts FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of its votes, cuz they don't trust

the electronic voting machines. Know how much WE handcount? 0% to 1%, depending on how much of a stranglehold rightwing Bushite electronic voting corporations, Diebold and ES&S, have on local election officials and legislators. That's right, some states handcount ZERO percent. No audit. And the best states--the best!--handcount only 1%.

Who has more transparent elections, and, consequently, a better democracy?

(Report from Caracas barrio on election day '06; contains 55% stat:) http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1901

Further, Venezuela allows the OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups to crawl all over its elections. Hundreds of independent election monitors fanned out all over Venezuela during the recall, during the recent presidential election (which Chavez won with 62% of the vote), and other elections. From what I can see, Venezuela has the most closely monitored elections in the democratic world.

Even the Bush Junta has had to acknowledge the legitimacy of Venezuelan elections:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2168

Finally, read what Venezuelans think of their own system:

Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006
By: Gregory Wilpert - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2179

-----

What our war profiteering corporate news monopolies can't abide--and what they fear like the Devil that we in the U.S. will get ideas from--is that the people of Venezuela have FREELY CHOSEN an equitable economic system in which some of the country's oil revenues benefit the poor, and in which the government exists to serve all of the people, not just the rich elite. They talk about Chavez; they rarely talk about the people who put him in office, and they have no respect for the awesome grass roots movement that has kept him in office through a US-backed coup and all sorts of nefarious schemes to overturn the will of the people. Further, they fail to convey the breadth and depth of this grass roots democracy movement, which is occurring throughout Latin America--with leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua, and soon in Peru and Paraguay (and eventually Mexico)--and represents the future of the region. Numerous initiatives are underway to establish regional cooperation and self-determination--including discussions of a South American "Common Market" and common currency--to reverse the catastrophe of US-backed "free trade" (neo-liberalism) and World Bank/IMF destruction of Latin American economies. Here's one from December:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2172

Here is an excellent threat with links in the comments to new economic integration developments:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2687996

The South Americans are fighting back--after years and decades of US-backed fascism and brutality and outrageous exploitation. And they are fighting back in the best way possible--peacefully, democratically and cooperatively (strength in numbers).

Lessons for those of us living in Bush's "banana republic":

1. Transparent elections.
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.

[Gabi Hayes]

21. thanks for that...and thanks for your many links showing the perifdy of US

journalists....they make their Iraq war run up coverage look like it was written by George Seldes compared to what they've been saying about Chavez

[Gabi Hayes]

22. come ON!!!! where are the Otto Reich supporters? he HATES Chavez,

indeed, there's lots of evidence that he was one of the organizers of the US led coup against him

don't you support him in his crusade against the evil dictator

come ON...let's hear you. the enemy of my enemy, and all that rot....

[Judi Lynn]

34. You're right! I've read they flew some of those coup scums to Washington,

where they met with him, PERSONALLY, only a few months before the coup.

Here's a reference I grabbed:

Now officials at the Organisation of American States and other diplomatic sources, talking to The Observer, assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success.

The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.

Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported in theory to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan's National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House.
(snip/...)-/blockquote]http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,688071,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, yeah. How despicable was it that he blamed the killing of the demonstrators (who were PRO-CHAVEZ demonstrators, by the way) on Chavez, then repeated the lie that the coup planners accused Chavez of having had them killed and he resigned. THAT'S NOT WHAT ALL THE EVIDENCE SHOWS!

Absolutely shameless. These people will do ANYTHING to advance their agenda. Apparently he things we've all been drunk, and no one knows about what really happened in that coup-attempt.

[Gabi Hayes]

41. thanks...I meant to link that Guardian article, but that's the problem with the BFEE....

perhaps the greatest reason for their 'success' is that they've done so MUCH, on so many planes, that it's impossible to keep up, and, by extension, impossible to counterract.

they make the rise of the Nazis look like it took place in geologic time

'The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.'

what can you say?

as in, what do you have to SAY ABOUT THIS, Corporate US Media?

nothing?

of course

[Judi Lynn]

42. And yet he sat there, just today, smirking into the camera, claiming they had NOTHING

to do with this coup.

They are all betting there is ultimately no justice in this world, not ever. I hope they will be wildly disappointed.

By the way, I just remembered reading something I have never heard before, regarding one of the methods of torture at one of Pinochet's torture center, probably Villa Grimaldi: a form of torture they employed there was to actually run over the "leftist" with a car in their parking lot.

Now that's one for the books, isn't it? I was reminded of Pinochet when his name came up in connection to Reich. They weren't content with the traditional torture techniques in the bowels of the National Stadium, nor were they content with throwing them out of airplanes, and helicopters, nor did they find the limited use of the ovens in a small town where they burned a few satisfying enough, they had to find expression for their creative drive in RUNNING OVER suspected leftists, as well.

It really takes all kinds.

[Gabi Hayes]

23. even wingnut Wiki acknowledges Reich's involvement in the Chavez coup:

Reich is thought to have been closely involved in the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez. After the aborted putsch, it emerged that Reich had met regularly with the coup plotters at the White House, including Pedro Carmona, who was briefly installed for two days before Chávez was restored. It subsequently emerged that Bush administration official Elliott Abrams, who is said to have supervised the planning of the operation, and Reich were not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it and discussed it in some detail, right down to its timing and chances of success, which were deemed to be excellent. On the day Carmona was installed, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office and told them that the removal of Chávez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned and was "responsible for his fate". <4> <5>

The involvement of Reich is seen as suggestive, especially when viewed in context with Reich's background as an American representative in Latin America. Administration officials and anonymous sources acknowledged meeting with some of the planners of the coup in the several weeks prior to April 11, but have strongly denied encouraging the coup itself, saying that they insisted on constitutional means. <6> Others have suggested that this involvement was meant to disguise U.S. administration involvement, and is actually further evidence that the U.S. was "stage managing" the coup. <7>

According to a report in The New York Times, Reich warned Congressional aides that there was more at stake in Venezuela than the success or failure of Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically independent state oil company, providing haven to Colombian guerrillas and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces"-- which they suspected to be Cubans -— were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators, in which at least fourteen people were killed.<8>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Reich

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. I was hoping SOMEONE would call in when Reich was on and enlighten him on John Perkin's

book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." He's been EXPOSED! Of course C-SPAN let the RW LIAR have the final word on Chavez and the US involvement in SA. :grr:

[Gabi Hayes]

26. yeah, the real weakness in that show is that they don't allow callers

a chance to respond after their initial statements.

a few callers mentioned things like the corporate hegemony of latin america; somebody even brought up his pal Negoponte, but Reich was allowed, unchallenged, as usual to lie his Austrian ass off every single time

it really really infuriated me that he came on after Weisbrot, who was defamed by Reich and several wingnut callers

I think I'll email Robert Parry and ask him to try to watch the segment. see if he feels up to responding to CSPAN. it would be interesting to have him on with Reich

that said, i wonder if it was ever suggested that Reich and Weisbrot appear together. I know which of the two would have been more than happy to have had it goe down that way

speaking of which, I wonder if Weisbrot stuck around to see the fiasco which followed him, or will catch the replay

I'm sure he'll be just as POd as I am

[Judi Lynn]

37. That would be sublime. Weisbrot has the FACTS, Reich is only armed with lies. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

48. They should have appeared together and I'm SURE Reich is the one who wanted no part of that

and to have the last say on the matter. That's what pisses me off about C-SPAN. The RWers always get the last word.

What killed me is when the jerk said the USA hasn't been involved in South American countries since the 60s???%$#@! HUH??? Does he think we're all ignorant? What an asinine thing to say. Then he had the gall to say the US had nothing to do with the Chavez coup? Geezuz. IF Weisbrot had been on with him, that would not have gone unanswered.

Another thing about C-SPAN....when hosts KNOW a guest is spewing pure unadulterated LIES, they say nothing. The guests should be called all it by the hosts....or at the very least, asked for proof of what they say. Who, what, when, where, how, and why. I understand letting callers say whatever they want, but letting guests do that is wrong.

[Gabi Hayes]

31. another fun Reich fact (don't you love that name?)

he was, IMO Bush's worst recess appointmen (yes, worse, even than Bolton, whose high profile limited the damage he tried so hard to do in the UN....nobody knows anything about Reich, and look what he's gotten away with in the past, from his days with JM Wave, to springing Bosch, to 'helping' out in Chile, to his Iran/Contra involvement, his Chavez involvement, to god knows what other wet work we'll never find out about)

best ironic moment of the segment when he extolled the virtue of his good friend John Negroponte, while ridiculing the charges that he had any inolvement in Central American death squads, claiming that he was cleared by a State Department investigation. would that be the same State Department that installed you as head of the Office of Public Diplomacy, deemed ILLEGAL by your own republican administration?

you KNOW you should be rotting in prison, don't you?

[Gabi Hayes]

36. Posada is here, the admitted terrorist, fighting extradition....

On Sept. 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, a former foreign minister of Chile, and his American aide Ronni Moffitt, in Washington D.C. Fifteen days later, a Cubana Airlines flight was blown out of the sky off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 people onboard. Posada has always denied any involvment in the bombing. But Mr. Cornick, the FBI counterterrorism specialist who worked on the Letelier case, says that both bombings were planned at a June 1976 meeting in Santo Domingo, attended by Mr. Posada. A November 1976 report, obtained from government files by the private research group National Security Archive, places Mr. Posada at two meetings where the Cubana bombing was plotted. It quotes their Cuban-American informer as saying, "If Posada Carriles talks, the Venezuelan government will 'go down the tube."

"The information was so strong that they locked up Posada as a preventative measure - to prevent him from talking or being killed. They knew that he had been involved," said Mr. Cornick, referring to the Venezuelan authorities. "There was no doubt in anyone's mind, including mine, that he was up to his eyeballs" in the Cubana bombing.

Posada was detained by the Venezuelan government for almost nine years, never formally convicted or acquitted of the bombing, until he escaped his minimum-security confines in 1985.

Now, Venezuela wants him back. According to Reuters, Venezuela is demanding Posada's extradition from the U.S. where his lawyer says he is indeed seeking asylum.


http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/5/13/122236/138

more than you'll ever want/need to know about Posada, including information connecting him to both Reich AND Colin Powell....see this section:

POWELL AND REICH PERSONALLY INTERVENE
Moscoso obtained $4 million for pardoning Posada and his accomplices

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International—


this last is about two thirds of the way down, in a VERY long listing of stories...look here:


April 7, 2005

[Gabi Hayes]

45. listen to Weisbrot on Robert McChesney's show here

http://willmedia.will.uiuc.edu/ramgen/archives/mediamatters061210.rm

[Say_What]

47. Or read Weisbrot's column here...

Great posts on this thread!!

http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=76

[Gabi Hayes]

49. yeah....lots of interesting contributions, in an effort to set the record stratight on

the likes of Reich and his criminal/traitor/terrorist friends.

seeing Reich lie and lie, then lie some more without any context from that wormy host made it pretty obvious why I've never seen him on any regular gasbag shows: SOMEbody would have held him to account for his almost innumerable offenses against the law, the constitution, and humanity (as in crimes against, Alex, for $1000)

[Say_What]

51. I bookmarked Weisbrot's article for later...

more information for the Venezuela-challenged DUers. :-)

Peace!!

[me b zola]

46. Where's the fifth recommendation??

Great thread Gabby et al :thumbsup:

[Gabi Hayes]

50. I just sent Weisbrot an email about Reich. Anybody else interested, see below:

[e-mail]