DUPLICATE - Chavez Calls John Negroponte A 'Professional Killer'

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VENEZUELA_CHAVEZ?SITE=ILKAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he believes enemies including the CIA are out to kill him, and called U.S. diplomat John Negroponte a "professional killer."

Chavez said Venezuelan officials have intelligence that associates of jailed Cuban anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles also are involved in plotting to assassinate him.

He said the death plot idea has "gained weight" due to various factors, including the recent appointment of Negroponte, the former director of national intelligence, as deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Who did they swear in ... there at the White House as deputy secretary of state? A professional killer: John Negroponte," Chavez said.

[EST]

1. Chavez's veracity index goes ever higher. n/t

[PDJane]

2. Won't make him friends down there,

but he is certainly correct.

[sam sarrha]

3. the truth rarely makes you any friends.. when Condi accidentally reported the Coup 2 hours early it

sorta tipped Chavez off to our intentions and rightly made him a bit paranoid

[StClone]

4. Past history of U.S. involvement

In Central and S. America is fact. Chavez is not imagining how things were and especially in light of a coup widely believed designed by Bush. He makes statements like this to stay in the news. If he were to keep quiet "a coup" would certainly creep in. Keeping the World aware he believes he is targeted certainly will give rise to suspicion if something untoward does in fact happen.

[BayCityProgressive]

5. The US Govt

has a sick obsession with killing democracy, Catholic nuns, liberal leaders, and torture...it's quite disgusting.

[StClone]

8. Ray-gun wasn't the start

But that old man certainly ordered, unwittingly or not, many thousands of deaths. Central America, Vietnam onward to Iraq, and so the blood flows.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Chavez is right about Negroponte - right there during massacres in

Central America. Now, an illustrious member of the George W. Bush administraiton.

[BreweryYardRat]

6. I don't like Chavez, but he's right on the money here.

[acmavm]

9. I totally agree with Hugo Chavez. And I have to admire him. He's turned

around a situation where the CIA and the other double secret dirty little organizations that we sent into Central and South America are the underdogs, are no longer able to kill innocent peasants and students who don't buy into the US propaganda machine. And I hope he has a long long life.

Now, would someone please explain to me how a man like Mr. Negroponte can live with himself? How he can look at his face in the mirror? How he can sleep at night?

[ngant17]

10. it would be difficult to exhonerate the rightwing

if another coup against Chavez is made. Especially if it results in the assassination of Hugo Chavez.

It would cause a lot of unpredictable events in South America going way out of control - oil markets, rioting, anarchy and militant groups armed and trigger-happy for revenge.

I hope Chavez can hold on until this menacing regime in Washington is gone. There might be a chance for some sanity after that.

[kath]

11. Well, he's got that right!

Negroponte's history is disgusting, as with so many of these Neocons in Bushco.